I've never cited anyone in the "defense department". The NSA. The intelligence community. Which, until recently, had a group devoted to the impact of pandemics on national security. This isn't just about one person with a medical degree. Pandemics impact us in more ways that just medical.
And even if you want remain focused on Fauci, and harp on him "failing" this time, he has advised multiple presidents previously and has not "failed" before. Again, maybe consider HOW his closed-door advice has been handled. And maybe consider what he has been asked to say in public statements. Whenever he is interviewed, and an interviewer asks him specific questions, he is much more forthcoming that he has been when Trump is standing right behind him.
Look, we've seen this template before, how Trump "builds up" and then "disappears" his "****e shields". Five minutes before The Apprentice first aired, you had never heard of George and Carolyn. Then, when you turned on the show, oh, these were two of the greatest businesspeople you had never heard of (at least according to Trump). And then, when they weren't needed anymore, Trump cut ties with them, they've never been heard/seen since, and they don't even work for Trump anymore. Carolyn was fired because her new-found celebrity was beginning to match Trump's.
Think about it this way. Fauci has served every US President since Reagan. That means both Republican administrations and Democrat administrations have trusted his counsel enough to keep utilizing him. But before this, almost nobody knew who he was. No other President put Fauci in front of the public every single day. But that's what Trump does, he puts people in front of him as "****e shields", and then he can scapegoat them when things go wrong. It's his modus operandi.
Every President has subject matter experts. But a complex problem will involve multiple SMEs from different specialties. For Covid-19, you need to hear from doctors, you need to hear from economists, you need to hear from diplomats, you need to hear from those who work in intelligence, and you need to hear from those who specialize in commerce/industry.
There shouldn't be "one person", not just one "subject matter expert", who everyone should be listening to. It's nice to have someone with Fauci's experience, but you need multiple voices, multiple perspectives, and open/honest discussion that is unconcerned about whether the President might then fire them for speaking frankly.
And the NIH/CDC are just the subject matter experts who form the beginning of the debate. Once they have provided the medical information, it is up to elected and appointed GOVERNMENT officials to EXECUTE (they are the executive branch). The NIH or the CDC can't do anything on their own. If the NIH/CDC says that we need tens of millions of Coronvirus testing kits, they cannot manufacture those kits on their own. The NIH/CDC is then reliant upon the federal government working on that suggested solution.
In the US, those testing kits are manufactured by private industry. Which means that it was incumbent upon HHS and others to then place the orders for testing kits, in order to get the ball rolling. NIH/CDC can't do that on their own, so stop blaming "unelected government bureaucrats" in those agencies for something that should have been done by elected/appointed officials within the Executive branch.
The four people that are MOST responsible for the delays in the Coronavirus response are Redfield (CDC), Hahn (FDA), Azar (HHS), and Trump. The NIH is not really the problem here, and I'm not completely absolving the CDC (particularly with the first defective testing kits from January-February).
But stop blaming nameless/faceless "bureaucrats". There are real people, with names and faces, who had far greater power and a much larger role in ******** things up. It wasn't some drone deep inside the CDC who failed to order millions of testing kits. And it wasn't Fauci either.
