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If Trump
Declares Martial Law Due to Coronavirus, Can He
Suspend the Election?
By
Martina Moneke
March 26,
2020 "Information
Clearing House"
- There is no dearth of examples suggesting that
President Donald Trump lives in an alternate
reality. But his belief that the coronavirus “came
out of nowhere” and “blindsided the world”—even
though public health experts had been warning about
the next pandemic for years—may be the reason why
the United States is so unprepared to deal with the
crisis.
In
2018, he weakened the country’s ability to respond
to pandemics when he decided to
dismantle a National Security Council directorate
at the White House charged with preparing for them.
His Interior Department
failed to update a pandemic plan
that was first prepared over a decade ago. His
administration
failed to restock
the Strategic National Stockpile, America’s store of
medical supplies, which include the face masks that
are in such dire need by doctors, nurses and health
professionals at the front lines of the pandemic.
Those supplies were depleted during the H1N1 flu
pandemic in 2009 and were never replenished:
Millions of masks in the stockpile are now past
their expiration dates.
The
lack of test kits, as well as faulty test kits
produced by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), may have been the result of
Trump’s budget cuts: The CDC’s current budget of $8
billion is a substantial reduction from the $12.7
billion it had a decade ago. “The debacle with the
tests probably reflects underlying budget cuts,”
said Scott Burris,
director of the Center of Public Health Law Research
at Temple University. “You can’t have surge capacity
if you’ve already been cut to the bone.”
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