Administration ended coronavirus detection pandemic program last year

"Two months before the novel coronavirus is thought to have begun its deadly advance in Wuhan, China, the Trump administration ended a $200-million pandemic early-warning program aimed at training scientists in China and other countries to detect and respond to such a threat.

The project, launched ... in 2009, identified 1,200 different viruses that had the potential to erupt into pandemics, including more than 160 novel coronaviruses. The initiative, called PREDICT, also trained and supported staff in 60 foreign laboratories — including the Wuhan lab that identified SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Field work ceased when the funding ran out in September"

It sounds like it _might_ be a worthwhile program. I don't necessarily agree with ending it. However, it also sounds like it was purely a training program that ran for 10 years & ended literally _just_ before the current pandemic. And the Wuhan lab the program worked with detected the current pandemic's virus.

I'm not sure what keeping it around would have changed for the current situation, if anything.

It as almost if self-inflicted wounds are best wounds.