Yuri Gripas/Reuters
President Donald Trump speaks at a coronavirus press briefing on March 14, 2020.
- Under President Donald Trump, scientific positions have been cut, or staff pressured to leave, which left the US less prepared for a pandemic.
- Months before coronavirus appeared, the administration cut the job of a CDC epidemiologist based in China whom Reuters reported could have warned earlier about the coronavirus..
- And a cancer researcher, who left his University of Florida lab under scrutiny for his ties to China, went back to his home country and developed a rapid test for the virus.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The coronavirus is illustrating how President Donald Trump's "America First" mentality impacted the science community, leaving the US ignorant of the outbreak in its first weeks, and without an expert who went on to develop a test for the virus in China.
In the months before the outbreak started in China, the Trump administration cut the job of CDC epidemiologist Dr. Linda Quick, Reuters reported Sunday.
Quick's job was to train field epidemiologists at China's disease control agency, a job that four sources who spoke to the outlet said was vital to keeping the US updated on outbreaks in the region.
Quick left her post in July 2019, amidst a bitter trade war with China, when she heard her position would be eliminated anyway in September.
Andrew Kelly/Reuters
People wearing surgical masks walk in a New York City park on March 22, amid a city-wide lockdown.
Former CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden told Reuters that the collaboration between the CDC and China had been challenged under the Trump administration.
"The message from the administration was, 'Don't work with China, they're our rival,'" Frieden told Reuters.
Had Quick remained in her position, Frieden said. "it is possible that we would know more today about how this coronavirus is spreading and what works best to stop it."
The CDC has challenged this analysis, saying the fact that Quick's position was eliminated "had absolutely nothing to do with the CDC not learning of cases in China earlier."
They did not let Quick - who still works at the agency - speak to Reuters for the story. At a Sunday press conference, Trump called Reuters' report "100% wrong."
US Navy via Reuters
A worker loads supplied onto a US Navy hospital ship that's being repurposed as a coronavirus hospital in California on March 21.
And in another example of how the Trump administration's policies possibly impacted the US coronavirus response, a researcher who left the University of Florida last year while under scrutiny from the government went on to create a rapid test for the virus in China.
According to a report from ProPublica, Weihong Tan was among three University of Florida researchers who moved back to China in 2019 after coming under investigation for allegedly failing to fully disclose funding from China and connections to universities there.
The 59-year-old chemist is now based at Hunan University. While he primarily studies cancer, he pivoted to coronavirus during the outbreak and quickly developed a rapid test to screen for the virus.
One of the biggest criticisms of the Trump administration in their response to the outbreak has been the relative lack of testing for possible coronavirus cases.
It isn't clear what - if any - impact Tan could have had had on the testing situation in the US. ProPublica points out that the lack of testing has been blamed on bureaucratic hurdles and a shortage of chemicals needed for the tests.
Tan came under scrutiny by the US government for his part-time work at Hunan University, which he pointed out to ProPublica had been praised by his department chair as recently as 2015.
Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
New Jersey residents wait in a long line of cars to get tested for the coronavirus at a drive-thru clinic in Paramus on March 20.
To combat its brain drain to the US, China identified Tan and other scientists as people to lure back to their home country under the "Thousand Talents" program
Pro-Publica pointed out an irony in the fact that this program wasn't succeeding until the Trump administration started scrutinizing these researchers.
In Tan's case, he only agreed to work at Hunan part time. But when he came under investigation, he decided to return to China, leaving Florida - where he had worked for 25 years and raised two sons.
ProPublica wrote: "None of the professors identified in this article have been charged with stealing or inappropriately sharing intellectual property. Yet in the name of safeguarding American science, federal agencies are driving out innovators, who will then make their discoveries and insights in China instead of the US."
Business Insider reached out to the White House for comment on this story Monday morning, but did not immediately receive a response.
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