The Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy is adding leadership and staff after remaining largely inactive since its Biden-era personnel departed in 2025.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Trump administration is rebuilding the White House office responsible for coordinating the federal government’s response to pandemics and other major biological threats following a series of domestic and international disease outbreaks over the past year.
The Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, known as OPPR, is expanding after operating with only limited personnel. At its largest point in 2024, the office employed 15 people, but its recent work had been handled by a single health official and a biosecurity specialist assigned to the National Security Council, according to a report by NOTUS.
The administration’s decision to increase staffing follows multiple public health emergencies, including a record-setting resurgence of measles, an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship and thousands of parasitic infections associated with lettuce.
Health officials said the renewed appointments indicate that the White House intends to take a more direct role in preparing for and responding to outbreaks rather than leaving coordination primarily to individual federal agencies.
OPPR was established to organize governmentwide responses to pandemics and other significant public health dangers. Its responsibilities include coordinating policies and actions across agencies whose work may involve disease surveillance, medical countermeasures, emergency response, national security and public communications.
The office had effectively been empty since 2025, when the employees appointed during the Biden administration departed and its director, Gerald Parker, resigned. The loss of its staff left the White House without the larger centralized pandemic-response operation that had existed the previous year.
The Trump administration began restoring the office’s leadership in early July by appointing Sara Brenner, a former Food and Drug Administration official, to lead OPPR, according to Bloomberg.
Rachel Idowu was also reappointed to the National Security Council as director of bioresponse, adding another official focused on coordinating the government’s preparation for and reaction to biological emergencies.
The appointments give the administration dedicated personnel at both OPPR and the National Security Council as officials assess the federal response to emerging infectious diseases and other biological risks.
The office’s revival comes as federal health and national security agencies confront outbreaks with different origins, transmission patterns and geographic reach. The measles resurgence has affected communities in the United States, while the Ebola outbreak in Congo presents an international health threat that could require coordination involving disease monitoring, travel policies and medical preparedness.
The hantavirus cases aboard a cruise ship and the widespread parasitic infections linked to lettuce have also highlighted the range of events that can demand a coordinated response. Such incidents may require participation from public health agencies, food-safety regulators, transportation officials, state and local authorities and White House policymakers.
Although none of the reported outbreaks alone necessarily constitutes a pandemic, their occurrence over a relatively short period has increased pressure on the administration to strengthen the federal structure responsible for preparing for larger emergencies.
The renewed staffing does not return OPPR immediately to its 2024 peak of 15 employees. It does, however, represent a shift from the period after Parker’s resignation, when the office no longer maintained its previous workforce.
Public health officials view the appointments of Brenner and Idowu as evidence that the administration intends to restore centralized coordination and become more actively involved when outbreaks cross agency jurisdictions.
The rebuilding effort places OPPR back within the White House’s public health and national security planning structure as the administration determines how much staff, authority and operational capacity the office will need to address future biological threats.
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