Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell alleged that the Obama administration didn’t present the Trump administration with any details about the specter of a attainable pandemic throughout a May 11 Team Trump Facebook Live discussion with Lara Trump.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell alleged that the Obama administration didn’t present the Trump administration with any details about the specter of a attainable pandemic throughout a May 11 Team Trump Facebook Live discussion with Lara Trump.
[partner-box]“They claim pandemics only happen once every 100 years, but what if that is no longer true? We want to be ready, early, for the next one. Because clearly, the Obama administration did not leave any kind of game plan for something like this,” mentioned McConnell.
This declare caught our consideration as a result of its definitive nature was straight at odds with the place of some former Obama administration officers, who instantly disputed it and began circulating on social media the hyperlink to such a plan.
We reached out to McConnell’s press crew to ask for the premise of his assertion. McConnell’s spokesperson David Popp mentioned in an emailed response that “this is a unique crisis and we are all adapting to the public health and economic challenges.” In phrases of the pandemic’s financial influence, he mentioned there was “definitely no playbook there” and as a substitute credited McConnell along with his work on the CARES Act, a coronavirus aid invoice handed by Congress.
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The Pandemic Playbook
Soon after McConnell made his playbook remark, Ronald Klain, the White House Ebola response coordinator from October 2014 to February 2015, tweeted out a hyperlink to a document titled “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents.”
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The doc, initially unearthed in March by Politico, is a 69-page National Security Council guidebook developed in 2016 with the aim of helping leaders “in coordinating a complex U.S. Government response to a high-consequence emerging disease threat anywhere in the world.” It outlined inquiries to ask, who ought to be requested to get the solutions and what key choices ought to be made.
Nicole Lurie, one other Obama administration official, confirmed to us the existence of the NSC pandemic playbook and likewise mentioned related paperwork had been created for the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“To say there was no playbook was ridiculous,” mentioned Lurie, who served because the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS throughout each phrases of the Obama administration.
The playbook lists sorts of infectious illness threats that would emerge. “Novel coronaviruses” had been amongst pathogens flagged as having potential to trigger heightened concern.
Lurie mentioned that there have been tabletop workout routines, which included planning for a pandemic-like scenario, in the course of the transition between the Obama and Trump administrations. (The Trump administration additionally performed an train — often known as “Crimson Contagion” — in 2019.)
Other Obama-era officers provided related tales in interviews this week with CNN:
“They were extensively briefed, to the extent that they paid attention to these things during the transition,” mentioned Jeremy Konyndyk, who directed USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance.
“We absolutely did leave a plan. It was called a playbook,” mentioned Lisa Monaco, former homeland safety adviser to President Obama. The aim, she mentioned, was to share the teachings discovered in the course of the Ebola and Zika outbreaks.
Meanwhile, Peter Loge, who served as a senior adviser inside Obama’s Food and Drug Administration, informed KHN he remembered a really clear message from the HHS secretary relating to the presidential transition.
“Our job was to set up the Trump political staff for success, and we took that mandate very seriously,” mentioned Loge. He and his colleagues wrote memos to tell the Trump workers about precedence points. “But nobody called me and asked what I was doing in my job,” mentioned Loge.
However, the Trump administration has maintained that the coronavirus sneaked up on the U.S., and Trump himself has even mentioned it was a “very unforeseen thing.”
But, in a May 14 exchange with reporters on the White House garden, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany acknowledged the existence of the Obama pandemic playbook, even holding it as much as present the press. She additionally dismissed its usefulness.
“The Obama-Biden plan that has been referenced was insufficient. It wasn’t going to work. What our administration did under the leadership of President Trump was do an entire 2018 pandemic preparedness report,” mentioned McEnany. Trump, who was standing close by, agreed.
Our Ruling
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell mentioned the Obama administration didn’t go away behind a “game plan” for a pandemic.
That’s mistaken.
Multiple Obama-era officers have mentioned they left a 2016 “pandemic playbook” that detailed actual steps to soak up the occasion of an infectious illness outbreak. The White House press secretary even held up the precise doc on the White House garden.
There has been dialogue in latest days as as to if the Obama plan was dated as a result of it handled classes discovered from earlier outbreaks that will not apply to the present pandemic. Still, McConnell’s assertion centered solely on whether or not any such “game plan” existed, and ample proof suggests it did.
We price it Pants on Fire.
This story may be republished totally free (details). “They claim pandemics only happen once every 100 years, but what if that is no longer true? We want to be ready, early, for the next one. Because clearly, the Obama administration did not leave any kind of game plan for something like this,” mentioned McConnell.
This declare caught our consideration as a result of its definitive nature was straight at odds with the place of some former Obama administration officers, who instantly disputed it and began circulating on social media the hyperlink to such a plan.
We reached out to McConnell’s press crew to ask for the premise of his assertion. McConnell’s spokesperson David Popp mentioned in an emailed response that “this is a unique crisis and we are all adapting to the public health and economic challenges.” In phrases of the pandemic’s financial influence, he mentioned there was “definitely no playbook there” and as a substitute credited McConnell along with his work on the CARES Act, a coronavirus aid invoice handed by Congress.
The Pandemic Playbook
Soon after McConnell made his playbook remark, Ronald Klain, the White House Ebola response coordinator from October 2014 to February 2015, tweeted out a hyperlink to a document titled “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents.”
The doc, initially unearthed in March by Politico, is a 69-page National Security Council guidebook developed in 2016 with the aim of helping leaders “in coordinating a complex U.S. Government response to a high-consequence emerging disease threat anywhere in the world.” It outlined inquiries to ask, who ought to be requested to get the solutions and what key choices ought to be made.
Nicole Lurie, one other Obama administration official, confirmed to us the existence of the NSC pandemic playbook and likewise mentioned related paperwork had been created for the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“To say there was no playbook was ridiculous,” mentioned Lurie, who served because the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS throughout each phrases of the Obama administration.
The playbook lists sorts of infectious illness threats that would emerge. “Novel coronaviruses” had been amongst pathogens flagged as having potential to trigger heightened concern.
Lurie mentioned that there have been tabletop workout routines, which included planning for a pandemic-like scenario, in the course of the transition between the Obama and Trump administrations. (The Trump administration additionally performed an train — often known as “Crimson Contagion” — in 2019.)
Other Obama-era officers provided related tales in interviews this week with CNN:
“They were extensively briefed, to the extent that they paid attention to these things during the transition,” mentioned Jeremy Konyndyk, who directed USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance.
“We absolutely did leave a plan. It was called a playbook,” mentioned Lisa Monaco, former homeland safety adviser to President Obama. The aim, she mentioned, was to share the teachings discovered in the course of the Ebola and Zika outbreaks.
Meanwhile, Peter Loge, who served as a senior adviser inside Obama’s Food and Drug Administration, informed KHN he remembered a really clear message from the HHS secretary relating to the presidential transition.
“Our job was to set up the Trump political staff for success, and we took that mandate very seriously,” mentioned Loge. He and his colleagues wrote memos to tell the Trump workers about precedence points. “But nobody called me and asked what I was doing in my job,” mentioned Loge.
However, the Trump administration has maintained that the coronavirus sneaked up on the U.S., and Trump himself has even mentioned it was a “very unforeseen thing.”
But, in a May 14 exchange with reporters on the White House garden, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany acknowledged the existence of the Obama pandemic playbook, even holding it as much as present the press. She additionally dismissed its usefulness.
“The Obama-Biden plan that has been referenced was insufficient. It wasn’t going to work. What our administration did under the leadership of President Trump was do an entire 2018 pandemic preparedness report,” mentioned McEnany. Trump, who was standing close by, agreed.
Our Ruling
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell mentioned the Obama administration didn’t go away behind a “game plan” for a pandemic.
That’s mistaken.
Multiple Obama-era officers have mentioned they left a 2016 “pandemic playbook” that detailed actual steps to soak up the occasion of an infectious illness outbreak. The White House press secretary even held up the precise doc on the White House garden.
There has been dialogue in latest days as as to if the Obama plan was dated as a result of it handled classes discovered from earlier outbreaks that will not apply to the present pandemic. Still, McConnell’s assertion centered solely on whether or not any such “game plan” existed, and ample proof suggests it did.
We price it Pants on Fire.
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