Even so, it sounds like the US pandemic response was put in a worse place by that change, and that’s the real point. I’m not saying it was excellent before; they never had a chance to prove themselves.

> It is true that the Trump administration has seen fit to shrink the NSC staff. But the bloat that occurred under the previous administration clearly needed a correction

This seems like a poor call. Shrinking staff and joining divisions together sounds like a easy way to get parts of your product that are unowned and unmaintained. When it comes to protecting against pandemics, I’m not sure the primary goal ought to be saving money.

I would be fascinated to learn more about what the officials in the organization did about COVID.

Credible source?

"The angry Left just can't stop attacking, even in a crisis."

That's a John Bolton tweet quoted in the piece. Full context:

> On March 14, 2020, John Bolton described the changes made to the team as streamlining. He tweeted: “Claims that streamlining NSC structures impaired our nation's bio defense are false. Global health remained a top NSC priority, and its expert team was critical to effectively handling the 2018-19 Africa Ebola crisis. The angry Left just can't stop attacking, even in a crisis.”

It seems true to me. There was a team dedicated to pandemic response and now there isn’t. The fact that some of the members of the team were reassigned to a broader focus area that included pandemic response doesn’t make that false.