A stunning report from the New York Times tells of a White House adviser who warned “the coronavirus crisis could cost the United States trillions of dollars and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death.” The newspaper says Donald Trump’s trade adviser Peter Navarro is the one who sounded an alarm. Times reporter Maggie Haberman writes:
Navarro’s two memos – written just over a month apart – were a warning that a pandemic could come and then about the devastation a lack of supplies and lack of funding could cause.
Navarro’s January memo reportedly read:
“The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil,” Mr. Navarro’s memo said. “This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.”
By late February, Navarro was even more alarmed, and he warned his colleagues, in another memo, that up to two million Americans could die of the virus.
These memos were sent directly to the president.
So why wasn’t Navarro’s warning taken more seriously? Haberman says, “Within the administration, they were seen by many through the lens of Navarro’s frequent China criticism.”
According to AXIOS:
One senior administration official who received Navarro’s memos said at the time they were skeptical of his motives and thus his warnings: “The January travel memo struck me as an alarmist attempt to bring attention to Peter’s anti-China agenda while presenting an artificially limited range of policy options.”
The supplemental memo lacked any basis for its projections, which led some staff to worry that it could needlessly rattle markets and may not direct funding where it was truly needed.”
