Opinion: The U.S. biodefense strategy is undermined by policies on health insurance and immigration
Limiting access to health insurance increases means that diagnosing an infectious disease can be delayed — or completely missed — allowing it to spread through the community.
President Trump’s new National Biodefense Strategy contains welcome tactics for protecting the health of Americans when “biological incidents” such as the 2001 anthrax attacks or the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa occur. Some of the plans, however, are at odds with the administration’s policies on health insurance and immigration. Reconciling the two is essential for the strategy to match its promise.
We see three notable positive steps in the strategy. One is of Alex Azar, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, to be biodefense point person. A second is the plan’s
