What Happens When We’re Hit with the Next Pandemic?

In recent weeks, reports of a “mysterious” new illness dubbed “white lung disease” sweeping through China have once again raised fears that another global pandemic could be on the horizon. But just over four years since the earliest reported cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan, it is not at all clear that the United States or the world is any better prepared for the next pandemic than it was for the last.

In early November, Chinese health officials held a press conference detailing an alarming rise in people admitted to hospitals with pneumonia-like symptoms, far above what is normally expected during flu season. In Tianjin, a city of 15 million about 100 miles from Beijing, one hospital is reportedly receiving 30,000-40,000 sick patients every day.

The Chinese officials insisted that these cases are merely a nasty strain of mycoplasma pneumonia, a relatively common bacterial infection that leads to uncomfortable symptoms but rarely kills patients, and not a novel pathogen as was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But other medical experts around the world are less convinced – no doubt in large part due to the fact that China intentionally downplayed the danger from COVID-19 for months and cost countless people their lives.

Unlike COVID-19, which was exponentially more dangerous to the elderly, this mysterious new pneumonia strain in China appears to be disproportionately infecting young children, as the average patient’s age is just eight years old. In x-rays of patients, telltale white splotches on the lungs (hence the name “white lung disease”) also suggest that doctors could be dealing with something different than a normal pneumonia strain.

Although the vast majority of cases have been reported inside China, patients are now beginning to present with white lung disease worldwide. Denmark and Sweden have both reported outbreaks. Warren County, Ohio, and East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, have also seen an unusual spike in child pneumonia cases, although there is not yet any evidence that these cases are directly linked to the outbreak in China.

This developing story understandably has people around the world concerned about the potential for white lung disease to become another global pandemic. Most medical experts currently say that there is little reason for alarm – but that sentiment is again eerily reminiscent of the early prognostications of the “experts” prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, there are few signs that the country today is better prepared today to face down another pandemic-level health event than it was prior to 2020.

For starters, President Joe Biden has un-learned the lessons that former President Donald Trump wisely understood in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump, recognizing that the World Health Organization had blatantly colluded with China to hide the truth about COVID-19 from the world and was actively working against American interests, pulled the United States out of the organization in July 2020.

But just days after taking office, Biden enthusiastically rejoined the WHO, continuing to funnel U.S. taxpayer dollars to a puppet organization of the Chinese Communist Party. Unsurprisingly, the WHO is once again parroting Beijing’s statements that white lung syndrome is nothing to worry about, and has only said that it is “seeking clarity” from Chinese officials on just how widespread the disease is.

Biden is also currently pushing for U.S. entry into a so-called “pandemic treaty” which would force the United States to ship 20 percent of its medical supplies overseas and grants broad authority to the WHO in the event of another pandemic.

The major public health institutions which repeatedly failed the American people during the COVID-19 pandemic have also not been held accountable, leading to a predictable collapse in public trust.

For instance, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the public face of the nation’s COVID-19 response, has faced no consequences despite the fact that House Republicans revealed he lied to Congress about his involvement in gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Lab from which the COVID-19 virus may have escaped. Fauci also actively worked to discredit the so-called “lab leak” theory early in the pandemic despite receiving an email from another scientist stating that the virus “looked engineered.”

Unsurprisingly, a recent Pew poll found that just 23 percent of Americans say they have a “great deal” of confidence in public health scientists, down from 39 percent in April 2020 and well above 50 percent in 2019. About 25 percent of Americans now say that they distrust CDC recommendations, while just 37 percent say they have “a great deal” of trust in the institution.

On a more general note, neither Congress nor Biden has tried to understand and learn from the shortcomings of the government’s response to COVID-19. While Democrats were busy trying to use January 6 as a cudgel against their political opponents and pass trillions of dollars in spending, they never made any effort to look at what went wrong in 2020 and 2021 so that future leaders might avoid those same mistakes.

Moreover, Biden has failed to alleviate the country’s reliance on China for important medical equipment – a major problem in the early months of the COVID-19 response. While Trump laid the groundwork to remove America’s industrial supply chains from China, Biden has largely abandoned that effort.

As a result, the country under Biden may be even less prepared if another pandemic should arise – just one more thing for voters to keep in mind as election year rapidly approaches.

Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.