Under the Biden administration, OpPR also worked behind the scenes. At the time it was directed by Paul Friedrichs, a doctor and retired Air Force -Major General. Friedrichs said CNN that the OPPR regularly organized interagency calls between the American centers for disease control and prevention, the USDA, the administration for strategic readiness and response, the US Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. When the outbreak of H5N1 Bird Flu broke out in dairy farms in March last March, OpPR organized daily meetings, which switched to weekly meetings towards the end of the administration.
“At the end of the day it was incredibly important to bring everyone together and have those meetings, so that we had a shared series of facts,” said Friedrichs. “When decisions were made, everyone understood why the decision was made, which facts were used to inform the decision.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Who partly wrote that the bill that has created with former senator Richard Burr (R-NC), was delivered by Trump's Sidelining of the office.
“Under the last administration, OPPR, as intended, served as the central hub that coordinated an entire government response to pandemic threats,” she told CNN in a written statement. “Although President Trump cannot legally dissolve, as he has threatened, it is very worrying that he has moved the legally created up to the NSC.”
“As intended by the law, Oppr is a separate, clear office for a reason, which is now mainly relevant, because we see outbreaks of measles, bird flu and other serious and growing threats to public health,” Murray wrote. “This should be alarming for everyone.”
