The Premonition: A Pandemic Story

by Michael Lewis

The federal government had a well-earned reputation for moving slowly. Rajeev marveled at just how fast it could move—when the president was pissed. He returned from his parents’ house on October 23, 2005. Five days later, all of the cabinet secretaries had signed off on his twelve-page document. Four days after that, on November 1, Bush gave a speech at the National Institutes of Health, announcing the new strategy. It had three parts to it: to detect outbreaks overseas so they might remain there; to stockpile vaccines and antiviral drugs; and, finally, to “be ready to respond at the federal, state and local levels in the event that a pandemic reaches our shores.” Whatever that meant. Bush did not elaborate much, because Rajeev hadn’t, either. The twelve pages he’d written on his own amounted less to a plan than a plan to have a plan. “It was written for an audience of one: the president,” said Rajeev. “To get the president off the ledge.”