LATIMES.COM/OPINION WEDNESDAY,OCTOBER 28, 2020 A11 OP-ED Prepare for an even more deadly pandemic By Thomas J. Bollyky The WHO needs more dedicated fund- and Stewart M. Patrick ing for its Health Emergencies Pro- gram and should be required to report he winner of the presi- when governments fail to live up to dential election, whether their treaty commitments. that is Donald Trump or Second, we need a new global sur- T Joe Biden, will need to over- veillance system to identify pandemic come the COVID-19 pan- threats, one that is less reliant on self- demic — the worst international reporting by early affected nations. An health emergency since the 1918 in- international sentinel surveillance net- fluenza outbreak — and also begin work, founded on healthcare facilities preparing the United States and the rather than governments, could regu- world for the next pandemic. larly share hospitalization data, using Patrick Semansky Associated Press Think it is too soon to worry about anonymized patient information. Pub- THE RUSHED confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett laid bare Senate Republican hypocrisy. another pandemic? World leaders lic health agencies in nations partici- have called the coronavirus outbreak a pating in this network, including the “once-in-10 0-year” crisis, but there is CDC, can assess that data, identify un- no reason to expect that to be true. A usual trends and more quickly respond Barrett could help flip the Senate new outbreak could easily evolve into to emerging health threats. the next epidemic or a pandemic that The U.S. should take the lead in spreads worldwide. As lethal as this forming a coalition to work alongside NICHOLAS GOLDBERG political ends. coronavirus has been, a novel in- the WHO to develop this surveillance And they did virtually nothing to stop further fluenza could be worse, transmitting network. We should also work with So now it is official: The same Russian interference in American elections. even more easily and killing millions like-minded G-20 partners, as well as Republican senators who in 2016 Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American more people. private organizations, in this coalition refused to consider Merrick Gar- Enterprise Institute, has identified some of the Better preparation must begin to reduce unnecessary trade and bor- land’s appointment to the factors that have driven congressional Republi- with an unvarnished assessment of der restrictions; increase the sharing Supreme Court because, with cans to the right over the years and encouraged what has gone wrong in the U.S. and in of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnos- eight months to go, it was suppos- their take-no-prisoners approach to politics. He the global response to the current pan- tics; and work with international fi- edly too close to the presidential cites the no-tax pledge promulgated by conserva- demic and what can be done to pre- nancial institutions to provide foreign election, have now confirmed tive activist Grover Norquist and the anti-Wash- pare for the next one when it strikes, as aid and debt relief packages to hard- Amy Coney Barrett with just ington animus fostered by Newt Gingrich. There it inevitably will. hit nations. eight days left before the election. was the “Southern strategy” of Richard Nixon Preparedness needs to start with Third, responding to a deadly con- This is so unprincipled, so inconsistent and so and Barry Goldwater to win white votes in the investment. Despite multiple recent tagion requires a coordinated national cynical that it defies the imagination. It is the Southern states. threats, from SARS (2003) to H5N1 approach. Too often in this pandemic, flip-flop of the century, undertaken by the Repub- And there’s been the slow but steady disap- (2007) to H1N1 (2009) to Ebola (2013 - in the absence of federal leadership, licans for one reason: Barrett’s confirmation pearance of liberal and moderate Republicans. 16 ); many blue ribbon reports and nu- states and cities competed for test kits ensures a conservative majority on the high court In 2012, Ornstein, with Thomas E. Mann of the merous national intelligence assess- and scarce medical supplies and for the foreseeable future. Brookings Institution, called the GOP “ideolog- ments; international assistance for adopted divergent policies on reopen- But here is one good thing that could come of ically extreme, scornful of compromise; unmoved pandemic preparedness has never ing their economies. The next admin- this shameful episode. With millions of people still by conventional understanding of facts, evidence amounted to more than 1% of overall istration needs to clarify the responsi- casting their votes before Nov. 3, and science.” Today, Ornstein says international aid for health. bilities of the federal government, perhaps the Barrett confirmation the problem is worse. “Now it’s not The United States devoted an even states and 2,634 local and tribal public will open Americans’ eyes, once Democracy aparty but a cult.” smaller share of its foreign aid budget health departments in pandemic pre- and for all, and show them who The GOP today is the anti- in 2019 — $374 million out of $39.2 billion paredness and response. Elected lead- they’re dealing with. Perhaps it will only works when immigration party, the party of —to prepare for a pandemic that has ers, starting with the president, must persuade them to reject the radical racial division and the party of now cost the country trillions of dollars. also put public health officials at the and hypocritical Senate Republi- the parties Trump. It has squandered any Meanwhile, funding for the Centers for forefront of communicating science- cans at the polls. compromise reputation it may once have had Disease Control and Prevention’s sup- based guidance and defend those offi- Barrett’s confirmation, after all, for principled fiscal conservatism, port to states and territories has fallen cials from political attacks. is only one of many irresponsible through presiding over costly and irrespon- by more than a quarter since 2002. Over Finally, the U.S. must do better by moves by the Senate majority, led sible tax cuts designed to win the last decade, local public health de- its most exposed and vulnerable citi- by the craven Mitch McConnell discussion and votes. It largely rejects bipartisan- partments have cut 56,360 staff posi- zens. More than 35% of deaths in the (R-Ky.), who long ago threw his lot ship, as we saw clearly during the tions because of lack of resources. U.S. from COVID-19 have been nursing in with President Trump. In recent deliberation. Obama administration. Preparation isn’t only about invest- home residents. Many others have years, he and his caucus have Democracy only works when ing more money. It is also about em- been essential workers, who are dis- grown not just more extreme in rules and norms are in place. It bracing the public health fundamen- proportionately Black and Latinx and their ideology but more unscrupulous in their only works when the parties compromise through tals that allowed some nations to move from low-income communities. Fed- tactics. aprocess of discussion, deliberation and voting. rapidly and aggressively against the eral, state and local governments Not only did they refuse a hearing to Garland Unquestionably, both political parties have coronavirus. The United States has should direct public health invest- (giving that seat instead to Trump appointee Neil made bad decisions over the years; both are sus- been hard hit by this pandemic, but all ments to these groups as a matter of M. Gorsuch), but not long after, McConnell and his ceptible to the tugs of partisanship. Democrats countries were dealt this hand. social justice and preparedness for fu- colleagues rammed Brett M. Kavanaugh’s nomina- and Republicans alike have engaged in tit-for-tat But we can do better. Here are four ture threats. tion through without a comprehensive investiga- tactics that make compromise more difficult. measures, outlined in a new report All of this will require leadership tion of the sexual assault allegations against him. For me, though, the turning point was the mis- from the Council on ForeignRelations, and marshaling support at home and The Senate majority also slow-walked the treatment of Merrick Garland. The Republicans that would make Americans and the abroad. The next president need not confirmation of lower court judges during the flatly blocked an elected president from exercising rest of the world safer. be doomed to replay this current ca- final years of the Obama administration — and his constitutional duty to name a new justice. First, the United States must re- tastrophe — provided he acts on the then sped them up when Trump came into office. That was shocking enough. But now, with the main a member of the World Health tragic lessons learned from the The Senate majority ignored evidence, disre- Barrett confirmation, they’ve brazenly reversed Organization, while working to reform COVID-19 pandemic. garded facts and refused to hear additional wit- their own logic, proclaiming their hypocrisy for it from within. The agency is hardly nesses before acquitting Trump in a half-baked the world to see. perfect, but it prompted China to noti- Thomas J. Bollyky is director of the impeachment trial in February, thereby giving the That kind of disingenuous politics needs to be fy the world of the coronavirus and it global health program and Stewart imprimatur of the upper house to the president’s rejected. Over time, the U.S. needs to rebuild a has coordinated the better-than-ex- M. Patrick is director of the global high crimes and misdemeanors. system that allows men and women of different pected response to the pandemic in governance program at the Council Senate Republicans have refused to stand up parties, ideas and ideologies to work together in developing nations.