The Trump’s administration’s misaligned approach to national biodefense

The Trump administration, as mandated by law, is creating a new national strategy for biodefense. The ultimate aim of a biodefense strategy is to provide security – but the administration’s processes for strategy formulation and execution are fundamentally mismatched with the goal of improving security. Severe White House dysfunction calls into question the administration’s ability to successfully oversee a national biodefense strategy, as does a failure to appoint high-ranking officials to crucial positions in a timely fashion. The administration has also exhibited an anti-science attitude nearly across the board and has proposed deep budget cuts for several of the government agencies most crucial to executing a national biodefense strategy. The future of US biodefense is at significant risk under the Trump administration.