You said, "show how important - and doable - it is to marshall international resources to reduce, if not eliminate, the impact future pathogens which will absolutely recur. I join him in 'trumpeting' the call for increased cooperation - and trust in the professionals who have earned their stripes with smallpox, measles, etc...i.e. follow their advice and guidelines..."
"and doable"? That is the crux.
When we talk about international cooperation, we cannot talk about it in an abstract/fantasy/academic sense. International cooperation happens in a very imperfect political world, based on rules of power not academic logic, by people who do not share the same goals and have no moral problem with hijacking an international effort for their own benefit. There is no such thing as real friendship among nations, and any plan that relies on nations to be nice to each other will necessarily fail. At best, we can trust but verify. And withdrawing from a corrupt international process is not necessarily an example of a lack of leadership.
You said, "It appears to me that some folks, with zero background or understanding, want to sever relations with those proven services"
What proven services? I assume you do not mean the World Health Organization, given how political they are.
You said, "...while it's not possible to achieve zero deaths, it's totally irresponsible to not take the only actions that will preserve hundreds of thousands of lives for some other day's toll, and those actions you already know...social distancing, mask wearing, etc. All we're missing right now is leadership, motivation and resolve."
And?...where do you hope to find that "leadership, motivation and resolve" in our free but failing society? How will you recognize it? Sending $4000 checks to people instead of $2000?...or only $600? Sending hospital beds and ventilators to a state, only to have them go unused, and then have the sender attacked for sending them? Blocking off the border?...or allowing all immigrants to come and providing free healthcare? (Note how no one wants to answer my poll question on immigration.) The key question is this: How will a consensus of all Americans recognize such leadership, and avoid attacking it for political gain? I personally don't think it is possible to have such leadership in America at this point.
A purely academic analysis of what is possible in a utopian world in which everyone (every person, every political party, every nation) sets aside selfish short term goals and cooperates to solve the problem...such an analysis is almost totally useless. An analysis can become useful when it shows how to solve the problem in the imperfect political world in which we actually live.