OMG—Biden WH just created a new *National Center for Epidemic Forecasting & Outbreak Analytics*.

Just like a national weather center or NASA’s asteroid detection center (CNEOS), this will be a pandemic warning center!

This will help prevent pandemics!
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/21/national-security-directive-united-states-global-leadership-to-strengthen-the-international-covid-19-response-and-to-advance-global-health-security-and-biological-preparedness/

2) this was proposed a while ago and critically needed to safeguard us from future pandemic — or future variants of concern. We could have used this in 2019!!! But better late than never. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-06-29/how-forecast-outbreaks-and-pandemics

3) Rewind to 1900–we did not have a national hurricane center... 8000 died in Galveston because we had no warning system.

We are now suffering a 400,000 death Galveston-type pandemic... it’s high time we have a pandemic forecasting center.

This is Biden @POTUS WH. Thx @WHCOS.

4) In contrast, we have CNEOS that detects ‘near earth objects’ (asteroid collision) run out of @NASAJPL. And all we needed for that was two Hollywood movies called Armageddon & Deep Impact. (Seriously—CNEOS’s Sentry created 4 years after both movies).
https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov 

5) Number of people who died from making Armageddon & Deep Impact movies: 0

Number of people died from #COVID19 pandemic: 2 million worldwide, 400k+ in US.

High time for a damn pandemic warning center!!!

Welcome to Biden @POTUS White House.

6) This topic is very personal to me, not just as an epidemiologist but also for what my family went through last year when I tried to sound the alarm on #COVID19.

People can be cruel and mean when they hear something they don’t want to acknowledge... https://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/2020/03/why-was-it-so-hard-to-raise-the-alarm-on-coronavirus.html