TRUMP IS CLUELESS ABOUT SCIENCE. BUT SO ARE MOST MEMBERS OF CONGRESS. THAT’S SCARY

Donald Trump isn’t the only government policy-maker clueless about science. Include in that category just about every member of the U.S. House and Senate. And that’s really scary.

Seventy-six of 100 members now serving U.S. Senators come from backgrounds in either business or law. There are no scientists. Ten of the 89 new House members elected in 2018 have various forms of scientific training. That group includes two medical doctors, a dentist, a veterinarian, a nurse and five engineers.

Now that a worldwide contagion has transformed from a scary movie to a virus paralyzing daily life for most of us, and inevitable death for many of us, the lack of scientific know-how and preparedness can not be ignored. Yes, the Trump White House dismantled a quick reaction team that almost certainly would have rung the alarm bells much sooner. And yes, Trump personally isn’t the model war room general when we need one. But where has Congress been all these years? Where’s the plan that could have been implemented at the first sign of the contagion? Where’s the stockpile of essential materials for health workers? Where are the emergency ventilators or the temporary M*A*S*H-like equipment and personnel on call to deploy?

It’s not as if wildly contagious diseases are rare. During the past few days 144 people have died In Nigeria from a pathogen known as the Lassa virus. That virus erupts frequently in western Africa, with death rates of 15 to 20 percent across the region. In recent years health systems have been called upon to battle MERS, SARs, Ebola, H1N1…