The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid

by Lawrence Wright

One could say that the Trump administration was in an enviable spot at the beginning of the pandemic. It had a step-by-step playbook that could serve as a guide through bureaucratic snares that accompany such a disaster. It had been alerted to its own failings by the Crimson Contagion exercise. And it was blessed with institutions that were envied and admired throughout the world. Beyond the matchless government medical and research institutions such as the CDC, National Institutes of Health, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, America also commands the world’s top medical schools and many of the largest pharmaceutical companies. When the Trump administration came into office, it was handed the keys to the greatest medical-research establishment in the history of science. Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary of HHS in charge of preparedness and response, had led the Crimson Contagion exercise. He would later admit, “We knew before the movie started it was going to have a bad ending.”