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Prepare for Disasters, Not for War
By maudeaster on 2020-04-30 10:59:31
Last week Kate Cavanaugh’s guest post for this blog, Can This War Transform War?, made an eloquent case for redeploying
our military budget -- to meet domestic needs so clearly revealed by this virus, to prepare for future pandemics and to delay
La
climate collapse through global cooperation. Lynda Ames’ excellent post a
week before, War and the Changing Environment, addressed the resource-hungry US war machine and the global impacts
of climate change. Earlier this week, Maureen Aumand posted an insightful review of David Wallace-Wells’ powerful book
on the climate crisis, The Uninhabitable Earth. As these posts make abundantly clear, we need to rethink what constitutes
real national security and what constitutes a prepared society, resilient enough for the challenges of this and future
pandemics and above all for the world-altering impact of the changing climate. I like thinking of practical policy changes
that would make a difference, so below you will find my thoughts on a To Do List for a New President. These ideas focus
on learnings from our current public health crisis - you can use the comment section below to share
other changes you’d suggest. We can think of this pandemic as a dry run for coping with the coming climate crises, here in
the US and globally — new diseases, flooded cities, raging fires, food shortages from scorched agriculture and displaced
populations. We desperately need national leadership which takes seriously preparing for the inevitable challenges of these
future disasters. Trump signed a record high military budget, $738 billion, while slashing the funds of exactly the agencies
and programs needed to deal with current and future health, economic and environmental
threats. Trump has appointed cabinet members committed to shrinking their agencies and lacking relevant experience and
competence to provide wise crisis management for our health, our economy or our role in the world. COVID-19 has made
crystal clear that effective national leadership requires re-purposing our bloated military budget to adequately and
appropriately staff the agencies needed to prepare for and manage crises. So here is my To Do List for a New President,
hopefully for action in 2021! At Home: Prioritize the Security of a Healthy Public
e Revive and update the national pandemic plan, created by Bush, improved by Obama and disregarded by Trump.
Barbara McQuade describes in USA Today_how this ignored roadmap includes plans for federal coordination and
distribution of needed supplies to the most affected areas, for providing technical assistance and support to state
: and local communities, and for communicating “candid messages” to limit
transmission.
¢ Restore the White House National Security Council Directorate for Global Health Security and Biodefense,
establish by Obama, but eliminated in 2018 by Trump, to plan now for the next global pandemic, a sadly likely result
of new pathogens emerging from the shifting climate.
e Appoint agency leaders with relevant public health experience: Trump’s appointment of administrators lacking in
needed expertise or managerial skills has stymied effective responses — for example, Robert Wilkie, the current
Secretary of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the agency legally designated to back up the nation’s health care
system in an emergency, has no experience in emergency management. Reuters this week brought to light another
egregious example: This January, as the virus threat increased, Health and Human Services Secretary Azar appointed
as head of the US Pandemic Task Force Brian Harrison, a man lacking public health training, whose main work
experience was as a Labradoodle breeder.
¢ Rebuild a robust public health structure at the national, state and local levels, able to mobilize quickly to address
emerging health hreats. This February Trump actually proposed a budget cutting funds to the
Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health. Trump has announced the need for increased testing
and for contact tracing, but left state and local health departments—already depleted by recent budget cuts -- with
totally inadequate funding for the needed staff.
Globally: Invest in Human Security, Not War
¢ Participate in and add support for Global Efforts to Address Global Challenges: As the whole world desperately
awaits cures and a vaccine for COVID-19, the Trump administration announced last week that the US will not take
part in a global initiative to speed the development, production and distribution of drugs and vaccines. France and
Germany are helping launch this WHO-led initiative — how sad and self-defeating to have the US not at the table.
¢ Increase US support for the UN’s World Health Organization, the key international agency helping governments
combat global health threats. The US also should, with other countries, work to strengthen WHO’s authority to
coordinate national efforts and to expand its assistance to countries with the weakest health systems. In his February
budget proposal for next year, just as the pandemic was accelerating, Trump actually called for halving the US
assessed contribution to WHO for next year to just $57.9 million , a pitiful contribution from the richest country in the
world. And in April, with the US already owing $203 million to the WHO, Trump placed a hold on that funding, and
his State Department has since started giving that “held” funding to other agencies.
e Restore the PREDICT Program, a global pandemic early-warning initiative of the US Agency for International
Development, started by Obama in 2009. This program trained scientists in 60 foreign laboratories to identify
Times how this program had identified over 1200 viruses with this potential and how Trump ended its funding two
months before the COVID-19 virus emerged.
Above all, it is going to take a president committed to prioritizing the real threats to our security — allocating national
resources to support global cooperation rather than stockpiling weapons and threatening nations with whom we need
to work. Nuclear weapons and battleships will not protect us in a world where the enemy is disease, famine, and flooding.
To survive the period ahead, we need collaboration with the world’s other major economies — China, Russia. the European
Union, Japan — not trade wars or stepped up military and diplomatic tensions.
If you agree, here are two things you can do:
e Decorate your lawn or your window with a great new sign, Healthcare not Warfare, distributed by Bethlehem
Neighbors for Peace. E-mail Pippa Bartolotti, pippa_bartolotti@hotmail.com , to order a sign for pick-up or delivery.
$10 donation requested.
e Sign the petition supporting UN Secretary General Guterres’ call for a global ceasefire: “The fury of the virus
illustrates the foll of war. It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on
the true fight of our lives.” Fifty-three nations have signed this statement, but not yet the US. Please join me in adding
your support.
