Article in TheGuardian: Trump Cuts Undermine Coronavirus Containment;  Watchdog Report. Direct link to the report:  An Embattled Landscape Series, Part 2a: Coronavirus and the Three-Year Trump Quest to Slash Science at the CDC

Here is another example of short-sightedness See this account from Politico:  DHS wound down pandemic models before coronavirus struck. A vital modeling program was sidelined amid a bureaucratic battle, former officials say, leaving U.S. less prepared to face the virus.