Is Trump Ready for a Global Outbreak?

Should America experience a pandemic, President Trump's tendencies toward nationalism may fuel the fire, argues The Atlantic writer Ed Yong.

That's because pandemics are inherently political. Take, for example, the global effort that was required to eradicate smallpox in 1980. The immunization campaign, led by the World Health Organization, demanded international cooperation on an unprecedented scale. Should another pandemic break out, nations must be prepared to collaborate meaningfully in order to eradicate it. (Anyone who has played the board game Pandemic knows this.) And Trump, with his isolationist rhetoric, Yong argues, would likely hamper the process.

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