HOW DID OBAMA KNOW ABOUT COVID 5 YEARS BEFORE IT HAPPENED

Sama_El
Published on Jan 7, 2024
https://www.ajc.com/news/obama-warned-pandemic-threat-2014-but-republicans-blocked-funding/dh2H9HxiuBY05T5uPqtqpI/

In a speech on December 2 that year in Bethesda, Maryland, Obama urged Congress to set aside partisan differences and pass funding to combat pandemics in the future.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/04/10/barack-obama-2014-pandemic-comments-sot-ctn-vpx.cnn

“There may and likely will come a time in which we have both an airborne disease that is deadly, and in order for us to deal with that effectively we have to put in place an infrastructure, not just here at home but globally, that allows us to see it quickly, isolate it quickly, respond to it quickly, so that if and when a new strain of flu like the Spanish flu crops up five years from now or a decade from now, we’ve made the investment and we’re further along to be able to catch it.”

Nearly a month earlier, on November 5, 2014, Obama asked lawmakers for $6.18 billion in emergency funds to enhance the government’s ability to respond to an outbreak of Ebola, which was an urgent situation at the time.

Obama’s request included $4.64 billion for immediate response and $1.54 billion as a contingency fund to ensure that there are resources available to meet the evolving nature of the epidemic.

But in an ultra-conservative Congress with little appetite for big spending measures, Obama’s proposal was pretty much dead on arrival.

"I cannot think of a better example of an area where we should all agree than passing this emergency funding to fight Ebola, and to set up some of the public health infrastructure that we need to deal with potential outbreaks in the future." — Former President Barack Obama in 2014

The funds would have included millions of dollars for personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Strategic National Stockpile which is where much of the drastic shortages are being seen across the country in the current crisis.

As part of the plan, Obama also wanted to fortify domestic public health systems and support more than 50 Ebola treatment centers through state and local public health departments, according to a fact sheet about the administration's response to the outbreak.

“I cannot think of a better example of an area where we should all agree than passing this emergency funding to fight Ebola, and to set up some of the public health infrastructure that we need to deal with potential outbreaks in the future,” Obama said at the time. “How do you argue with that? That is not a partisan issue. That is a basic common sense issue that all Americans can agree on ... For the most part people have recognized this is not a Democratic issue, nor a Republican issue, it’s about the safety and security of the American people. So let’s get it done. This can’t get caught up in normal politics. We need to protect the American people and we need to show the world how America leads.”

Obama’s push for a national framework with installations ready to swoop in and curtail an outbreak like the coronavirus met fierce resistance, and funding for pandemics was forced to stay at the levels approved in 2010 through the end of Obama’s final term in office.