The Trump administration notified Congress earlier this month that it would divert $3.8 billion from Pentagon funding to build the long promised wall on our southern border. But as the administration rummages around for federal funding for this physical wall, it is dismantling a far more important wall of defense that has been created over decades: America’s global health infrastructure.

In this year’s budget proposal, the Trump administration sought a 10% funding cut to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), a 9% cut to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a 7% cut to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These institutions are foundational to America’s contribution to global health. Not only will these cuts threaten the lives of millions of people across the world, they also jeopardize the health of Americans, America’s economic growth and our standing as a world leader.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic has brought a terrible loss of life to China and ignited terror worldwide, but it has also taught us important lessons about our global health infrastructure. While the Chinese public health professionals deserve credit for their excellent and courageous efforts to contain the virus, considerable credit goes to American investments in global health in making a rapid and effective response possible.

The National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the NIH, acted quickly to conduct fundamental investigations that helped us rapidly understand the biology of COVID-19. Within weeks of the alarm being sounded, the genetic code of the virus was publicly published and rapid testing for the virus became possible. This was possible due to previous research conducted by NIH-funded investigators on SARS and MERS which are also coronaviruses — viruses that typically result in respiratory infections. (They are readily transmitted from person-to-person, and can sometimes also transmit from other animals to humans.)

The NIH is already funding important clinical trials to understand how best to treat patients infected with COVID-19 and has made funding available for researchers to fast-track research into this virus. During the Ebola virus epidemic, DHHS funded research on an antiviral drug called Remdesivir that is now finding application against COVID-19. The Department is also racing to develop a vaccine against this virus. Cutting funding for global health work only weakens the fortifications between Americans and life-threatening epidemics.