Politically, it was a dangerous situation for both men.
As its trade war with China escalated, the Trump administration eliminated a partnership with Beijing on public health, which began after the SARS debate, aimed at helping prevent potential pandemics. According to current and former officials of the agency, Washington has cut itself off from potential intelligence on the virus and lost the chance to work with China against it.
Under the partnership, teams of U.S. doctors were stationed in China and eventually helped train more than 2,500 Chinese public health staff. More than 15 also traveled to the United States for training.
“Our students,” the Americans call them.
One of the American doctors was stationed in the Chinese CDC and built ties with students who had to visit posts across the country and socialize with Chinese doctors.
“You are in a position to gather extremely important information,” said Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, a former agency director who helped draft the arrangement, said, “especially about a looming new disease.”
In a ten-year partnership review, doctors from both sides argued that it helped prevent potential pandemics, such as bird flu, which first appeared in southern Guangdong province. China allowed U.S. epidemiologists to join the response and sent scientists to America for training, a partnership that continued as recently as 2017, when a newly virulent strain spread to other countries, killing more than 600 people.
“We have worked shoulder to shoulder with the China CDC,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, the head of the US agency under President Barack Obama, recalls. With further spread and the wrong mutation, dr. Frieden added: “It could have been a pandemic.”
Another American program in the country – called Predict – tried to spot dangerous pathogens in animals, especially coronaviruses, before they could jump on humans. One of the labs it worked with was in Wuhan.