“A peacetime institution in a wartime environment,” Carter called it. Its people were good at figuring out precisely what had happened, but by the time they’d done it, the fighting was over. They had no interest in or aptitude for the sort of clairvoyance that was needed at the start of a pandemic. Yet the CDC was now the home for the strategy he and Richard had created. “So the CDC is the authority, and everyone is going to be waiting for the CDC to make a decision,” said Carter. “And who is going to go against the CDC—some local health official?” *
