The administration of former US President Donald Trump downplayed the threat of COVID-19 and failed to implement life-saving measures in the early days of the pandemic despite receiving clear warnings from officials, the House Intelligence Committee said on Thursday.
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th December, 2022) The administration of former US President Donald Trump downplayed the threat of COVID-19 and failed to implement life-saving measures in the early days of the pandemic despite receiving clear warnings from officials, the House Intelligence Committee said on Thursday.
"The Intelligence Community's alarms to the White House and the former president were clear and unmistakable. And yet, in public messaging and in preparation for the impending impact, COVID was downplayed and steps that could have been taken to save lives were ignored," the panel said in a report on pandemic response.
By the end of January 2020, US intelligence was warning of a possible pandemic, including a classified briefing to the Intelligence Committee in mid-February, the panel said.
Government officials were tracking and warning of the pandemic threat well in advance of Trump's declaration of a national emergency on March 13, the panel said.
The panel in its report recommended investments in open source intelligence collection efforts, better integration of the intelligence community into public health agencies and the creation of a dedicated center for global health security at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The panel's report did not cover the origins of the novel coronavirus, but noted that future pandemics could emerge from either a lab accident or natural transmission.
