influenza was about 0.1%, and that the fatality rate of COVID-19 was estimated at between 1% and 2%; however, Azar added that the latter figure was uncertain because there might be many mild coronavirus cases yet unreported. Chad Wolf said that the fatality rate for COVID-19 was between 1.5% and 2%, and said incorrectly that the fatality rate for influenza over the last 10 years in America was similar (about 2%). Kennedy was unhappy with the briefing, saying afterward, "I thought a lot of the briefing was bullshit ... They would answer the question but dodge, bob, and weave. I understand there's a lot they don't know. I get that. But they need to answer the questions straight up. They all talk about a task force, a committee – a committee's not going to solve this problem." Trump's officials tried to allay concerns that their request for $2.5 billion was insufficient to address the epidemic. Some Republicans joined Democrats in criticizing the funds requested and found transparency lacking with regard to a coherent strategy to contain the virus. Another Republican, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby of Alabama, told Azar: "If you lowball something like this, you'll pay for it later." Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman Brendan Boyle asked Azar how he could defend "draconian cuts" in the CDC budget "at the same time we are facing a unique worldwide health crisis." Two years earlier, a coalition of global health organizations opposed Trump's plans to reduce the CDC's operations in 39 of 49 countries in which it had been helping to rapidly identify and suppress outbreaks of diseases. The coalition wrote to Azar, contending, "These programs are essential to our national defense". In 2018, National Security Advisor John Bolton dismantled the task force charged with responsibility for planning and response to epidemics. The team's leader, Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer, was the leader of the anti-malarial efforts under presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. White House Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert, who had advocated a comprehensive biodefense strategy against both pandemics and potential biological attacks, departed from the White House on the same day Bolton arrived. HHS purchase of 500,000 doses of remdesivir On June 29, 2020, it was announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had agreed to buy 500,000 remdesivir treatment courses. The announcement mentioned that each five-day course of remdesivir (for treatment of a patient