https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/487581-bolton-de...
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/03/i-dont-know-anyt...
In 2018 the people in charge of the program were forced out, and Trump repeatedly (unsuccessfully) sought to cut the CDC budget (and the administration is currently still advocated for budget cuts after declaring an emergency, but who knows how long before this guy is thrown under the bus[2])
This was widely condemned but I don’t remember much media coverage. In 2019 a bipartisan group of experts petitioned the president to reinstate those positions and not to cut funding[0], and recently at the start of the outbreak in February senators wrote a letter to the head of the NSC to please appoint people for the pandemic preparedness roles[1], but so far nothing.
[0] https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/1...
[1] https://www.schatz.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/021320%20NSC%20N...
[2] https://thehill.com/policy/finance/486817-trump-budget-chief...
The problem is that people are dumb and forgetful.