Biden campaign criticizes Donald Trump for saying he would close pandemic preparedness office

President Biden’s reelection campaign criticized former President Trump on Tuesday after Trump said he would get rid of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR).

The OPPR was founded in 2022 due to failures in the government’s response to the COVID pandemic. Trump said in a TIME interview on Monday this office is not necessary.

The office is “a way to distribute pork,” Trump said. “I think it looks good politically, but I think it’s a very expensive solution to something that doesn’t work. You have to act quickly when you see this happening.”

Biden’s campaign criticized Trump for the idea, pointing to the former president’s response to the COVID pandemic outbreak in early 2020 as lackluster and without a clear plan.

“Pandemic preparedness is not abstract for the millions of Americans who have lost a loved one to Donald Trump’s failed response to COVID-19,” campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement to The Hill.

“We know all too well the impact of Trump’s inability to lead: an economy in ruins, schools closed, and too many American lives needlessly lost,” he continued. “We can’t afford to go back.”

Munoz also worked as a White House COVID spokesperson during the first few months of the president’s term.

Trump’s commitment to dissolve the OPPR comes after his administration eliminated a similar pandemic preparedness working group in 2018. The National Security Council’s Global Health Security and Biodefense unit was disbanded during an NSC reorganization, with much of its staff leaving their positions or being absorbed by other NSC units.

Founded in 2015, after the Ebola outbreak, the unit aimed to create reaction plans and logistical preparation for any national health outbreak. Biden’s successor office, OPPR, has already worked on responding to an outbreak of bird flu among American livestock this year.