If you’re still driving around wearing a mask have we got good news for you?
The White House on Friday launched the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, half a year after Congress instructed the administration to set up a new arm in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
It is a now-permanent installment in Washington and will first be led by retired Major General Paul Friedrichs, a longtime biosecurity official. It comes roughly two months after the Covid-19 public health emergency ended and weeks after Covid-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha stepped down, reflecting an overall wind-down of the administration’s coronavirus efforts.
Just in time!
Pandemics are like hurricanes. You know another one is coming. Best be prepared. You don’t know exactly where and when it will hit. And, they both get named by the government.
There was Alpha and our favorite Delta AY.4.2 amongst many other COVID-19 variants that caused us to run to CVS for a booster or three. Hurricanes Katrina, Ike, and Sandy needed no boosters, strong on their own accord.
Permanent installments in DC grow like hurricanes as well. They start small, grow into an unstoppable fury, and leave a mess behind time and again.
After 9/11 the Transportation Security Administration was created. It’s now a permanent installment as well.
As of the fiscal year 2020, the TSA operated on a budget of approximately $7.7 billion and employed over 47,000 Transportation Security Officers, Behavior Detection Officers, Transportation Security Specialists, Federal Air Marshals, and other security personnel. The FY 2023 Budget is 34% higher at $10.3B and manned(or womanned) by 60,652 positions or 29% more fine government workers.
That’s Bidenomics! Grow the government from the bottom up and the middle out.
Don’t you feel safer? Remember to take off your shoes before going through the airport gauntlet, please.
You’d think that the combo of WHO, NIH, FDA, and the CDC would be able to handle the next time some Chinese bats take flight. Or did it escape from the lab Anthony?
But, no. It is time, or past time really, for another arm to be added to the many in DC there to serve you.
Thank goodness Biden and Kamala are urging the wealthy to pay their fair share. As they remind us, there is still work to do.
Maybe the government is the virus, after all, it spreads just like a pandemic does.
Unfortunately, like COVID, there does not seem to be an effective vaccine to eliminate its growth.