[Steve_Seattle]

The disparity of the numbers between the CDC and Trump/Pence (80% approval versus 60% approval) reflects media influence, and a confusion of how these things are supposed to work.

The CDC is the main federal bureaucracy established to prepare for these epidemics. It consists of career professionals who obviously have exponentially more medical knowledge than any president, and it is THEIR responsibility to be ready for these situations.

The president cannot be expected to be more prepared than agencies like the CDC, or to deploy assets that aren't available. He is trying to do catch-up work for agencies that weren't prepared. And who has been touting the expertise of the federal bureaucracies against Trump the past three years? The press.

[ldish]

‘The CDC is the main federal bureaucracy established to prepare for these epidemics.’

And it seems to me they were...certainly less than prepared...and it was more than a closure of ‘a desk group’