The guy sent by the Department of Veterans Affairs was the glaring exception. Rajeev had figured that he needed someone from the VA, as it ran the nation’s largest hospital system and, during a pandemic, might be tapped both for hospital beds and for data about what was going on around the country. The VA sent not a policy person, not a Washington person, not a person who knew anything about pandemics, not a person who looked all that happy wearing a suit and tie, but a doctor from Atlanta named Carter Mecher. As it turned out, he would make all the difference.
