Biden health officials say they built up US pandemic defenses. Trump promises changes

FILE – In this photo provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an animal caretaker labels a blood sample collected from a dairy calf vaccinated against bird flu at the National Animal Disease Center research facility in Ames, Iowa, on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (USDA Agricultural Research Service via AP, File)
NEW YORK – The Biden administration on Tuesday released a “roadmap” for maintaining government defenses against infectious diseases, just as President-elect Donald Trump pledges to dismantle some of them.
The 16-page report recaps steps taken in the last four years against COVID-19, mpox and other diseases, including vaccination efforts and the use of wastewater and other measures to spot signs of erupting disease outbreaks. It’s a public version of a roughly 300-page pandemic-prevention playbook that Biden officials say they are providing to the incoming administration.
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Biden officials touted the steps they took to halt or prevent disease threats, but some public heath researchers offer a more mixed assessment of the administration’s efforts. Several experts, for example, said not nearly enough has been done to make sure an expanding bird flu pandemic in animals doesn’t turn into a global health catastrophe for people.
“Overwhelmingly you’ve heard a lot of frustration by outside experts that we’ve been under-reacting to what we see as really serious threat,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health.
Public health experts worry the next administration could do less
Trump and his team plan to slash government spending, and Trump has endorsed prominent vaccine detractors for top government health posts. During the campaign last year, Trump told Time magazine that he would disband the White House office focused on pandemic preparedness, calling it