Being a (very low-level) historian and a (retired) history teacher, I could not resist the effort to arrange events related to the COVID-19 epidemic in chronological order. It seemed to me to be the only way of understanding how and why things had unfolded as they have. You can find the timeline (which ran to 40+ pages as a Word document) here: Timeline of the Coronavirus Pandemic and the U.S. Response to It . The wording of the timeline is overwhelmingly that of the sources from which it is derived. I’m sure I missed important events, but I think it’s reasonably comprehensive. If you don’t feel like plowing through it, the main takeaways, in my view, would be the following:
1. Both the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration were very conscientious in attempting to prepare the United States for a pandemic. Surprisingly, it was George W. Bush who really emphasized the need for such preparation. His actions were commendable in this area. The Obama people even prepared a playbook outlining what the key elements of the government’s response should be. They also interacted with the incoming Trump administration to warn them of the possible impact of a pandemic. Protocols for dealing with a pandemic were in place in January 2017. These protocols were largely forgotten or ignored.
2. China did indeed seek to conceal the extent of the outbreak that began in Wuhan, they did deny how easily it could be transmitted from person to person, and, outrageously, even tried to blame the United States for the outbreak. Nonetheless, the U.S. intelligence community knew the main outlines of the story by late 2019, and briefed the White House repeatedly in January and February of 2020. The CDC director knew the severity of the outbreak as early as around 1 January.
3. The entire infrastructure that had been set up to deal with a pandemic was either cut back or completely crippled by Trump and his enablers.
4. The U.S. effort was further crippled by the inability of the government to implement desperately needed testing, and this utter failure is, more than any other factor, the reason the pandemic got out of control once it had been established.
5. Trump repeatedly downplayed the epidemic, bragged about his administration’s response to it, and praised China’s efforts on a surprising number of occasions. Weeks went by without decisive action.
6. Local leadership, especially in New York, must share in the blame for New York City’s tragic situation.
7. Ineptitude, corruption, and sheer confusion have crippled the U.S.’s ability to generate and distribute desperately-needed equipment to the states.
8. At every turn, Trump has shunned any responsibility for this disaster, has attempted to blame others, has downplayed or even contradicted the advice of his scientific advisors, has praised his own efforts, has promoted snake-oil “cures”, and has used the bailouts to benefit himself and his cronies.
So, anyway, let me know what you think if you get the chance.