Trump officials did sound the coronavirus alarm. They just don't work there anymore.

[FarPoint]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/12/trump-officials-coronavirus-127742?fbclid=IwAR2qcfEwSDHSLBLWj-MABz3N89gJVDgZCt7mbYYilpA5_ckH2UJf60gKjfs

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On the January day a new coronavirus was identified in Wuhan, China, Tom Bossert, President Donald Trump’s former homeland security adviser, tweeted a stark warning: “we face a global health threat. ”At the time, the coronavirus outbreak was isolated to China — a distant threat to America that did not seem to overly concern President Donald Trump. But Bossert was just one of several former Trump administration officials waving their arms. Other people like Scott Gottlieb, head of the Food and Drug Administration until 2019, and Gary Cohn, who once helmed the National Economic Council, were also on TV and Twitter, arguing the administration must prepare for the situation to get worse. The people who had once been seen as Trump’s guardrails inside the administration were now trying to educate from the outside.

“My sole motivation for weighing in is to promote good public health awareness to do everything within our means to limit human loss or suffering,” Bossert said in an interview Thursday.
Indeed, the advice proved prescient. The virus has now landed on American shores and is infiltrating communities across the country. Theaters are shuttered, sporting events have ground to a halt, travel has slowed to a crawl. Offices are closed and officials are asking people to stay home. Around the world, financial markets are trembling.

And many health experts have said the situation has grown dire because the Trump administration didn’t heed these warnings.
The ominous message coming from former administration officials often stood in contrast to the upbeat White House narrative. As people like Bossert and Gottlieb pushed for the administration and public to recognize the virus’s disruptive potential, those immediately around the president publicly echoed Trump’s refrain that everything would soon return to normal. The disconnect is perhaps an example of the evolution of Trump’s administration — dissenting voices have fallen away in favor of those more willing to toe the Trump line.

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