The first three years of the Trump administration
have been notable for a number of reasons.
In 2019, the United States saw its lowest
level of unemployment since the Nixon administration.
Then, in early 2020, the country experienced
the largest spike in unemployment claims in
history, according to the Washington Post.
It's been a mixed bag, to put things mildly.
And the job market hasn't been any less tumultuous
within the walls of the White House, where
record-breaking, headline-catching turnover
amongst the president's appointees has overshadowed
the impressive number of posts left unfilled.
As recorded by the Partnership for Public
Service, out of 749 key positions, there are
150 for which the Trump administration has
yet to nominate a candidate.
Finding the right person for any job is hard,
and the White House seems to have had a particularly
difficult time pinning down a Science Advisor
to the President.
During the previous administration, the position
went to John Holdren, a Harvard professor
and MacArthur Fellowship "genius grant" recipient
with a PhD from Stanford.
He was sworn in two months after Obama took
office and stuck around until the end of the
44th president's eight year term.
In contrast, it took two years for the Trump
White House to appoint a science advisor,
with the seat remaining vacant from January
of 2017 until January of 2019, and it's not
that there wasn't a push to fill the chair.
In an interview with Stat News, Microsoft
founder and dad jeans demigod Bill Gates recounted
a meeting with President Trump which took
place in March of 2018.
According to Gates, he met with the president
to discuss the possibility of, believe it
or not, a future crisis caused by a viral
pandemic.
Specifically, Gates was concerned that a new
strain of flu might develop, and was pushing
for federal backing towards research for a
universal influenza vaccine.
Gates has been passionate about the project
for some time, explaining in a TEDtalk from
2015,
"If anything kills over 10 million people
in the next few decades, it's most likely
to be a highly infectious virus."
"We've invested a huge amount in nuclear deterrents,
but we've actually invested very little in
a system to stop an epidemic."
Since then, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
has created $12 million in grants towards
researching an across-the-board vaccine against
the flu.
Of his conversation with President Trump,
Gates said,
"One thing's for sure: No matter what your
framework is, even if it's that human benefits
outside the country count for zero, stopping
pandemics is a smart thing."
During the discussion, he reportedly asked
the commander in chief why he hadn't yet appointed
a science advisor, and claims that Trump offered
him the job on the spot.
By Gates' account, he declined the position,
stating,
"That's not a good use of my time."
To be fair, according to the Hill,
"[He] didn't put [Trump] to the test, whether
that was a serious thing or not...[Trump]
probably himself didn't know if he was serious.
It was a friendly thing.
He was being friendly."
On the up side, he did describe the president
as being "super interested" in developing
a universal flu vaccine.
Since then, Gates and Trump have butted ideological
heads over the subject of infectious diseases.
Over the course of the coronavirus pandemic
of 2020, the tech mogul has been vocal in
his disapproval of the president's actions.
In March, Vox reported that while discussing
Trump's hope to reopen the country's businesses
by mid-April, Gates said,
"Bringing the economy back...That's more of
a reversible thing than bringing people back
to life."
"We did not act fast enough to have an ability
to avoid the shutdown."
He also compared reopening the country to
saying,
"Hey, keep going to restaurants, go buy new
houses, ignore that pile of bodies over in
the corner.
We want you to keep spending because there's
maybe a politician who thinks GDP growth is
what really counts."
A month after leaving Microsoft, in response
to Trump's decision to defund the World Health
Organization, Gates took to Twitter, saying,
"Halting funding for the World Health Organization
during a world health crisis is as dangerous
as it sounds.
Their work is slowing the spread of COVID-19
and if that work is stopped no other organization
can replace them."
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