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1/ “Coping with a pandemic is one of the most complex challenges a society can face,” @JamesFallows writes. “It is a challenge that the United States did not meet.”
What went wrong? To answer that question, Fallows turned to his background in aviation. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/how-white-house-coronavirus-response-went-wrong/613591/
What went wrong? To answer that question, Fallows turned to his background in aviation. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/how-white-house-coronavirus-response-went-wrong/613591/
2/ @JamesFallows compiled an aviation-style accident report on the disaster of America's pandemic response: “This was a journey straight into a mountainside, with countless missed opportunities to turn away.” https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/how-white-house-coronavirus-response-went-wrong/613591/
3/ First, @JamesFallows considered the flight plan. “Did the warning system work this time, providing advance notice of the coronavirus outbreak? According to everyone I spoke with, it certainly did.”
In other words, we were warned. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/how-white-house-coronavirus-response-went-wrong/613591/
In other words, we were warned. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/how-white-house-coronavirus-response-went-wrong/613591/
4/ Early on, we failed to respond to the warning, @JamesFallows writes. “When the new coronavirus threat suddenly materialized, American engagement was the signal all other participants were waiting for. But this time it did not come.” https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/how-white-house-coronavirus-response-went-wrong/613591/
5/ Earlier administrations had created guides for pandemic response. Following the steps in these U.S.-government playbooks would have saved tens of thousands of lives. Reading these documents now is like discovering a cockpit checklist in the smoking wreckage.
6/ The system was primed to act, but the person at the top of the system had to say, “Go.” And that person was Donald Trump.
As one intelligence-world veteran told @JamesFallows: “Our system has a single point-of-failure: an irrational president.” https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/how-white-house-coronavirus-response-went-wrong/613591/
As one intelligence-world veteran told @JamesFallows: “Our system has a single point-of-failure: an irrational president.” https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/how-white-house-coronavirus-response-went-wrong/613591/
7/ Over nearly two decades, the U.S. government had assembled the know-how to spare this nation the worst effects of the next viral mutation that would, someday, arise. That someday came, and every bit of the planning was for naught, @JamesFallows writes. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/how-white-house-coronavirus-response-went-wrong/613591/
8/ Today, more than 2.3 million Americans have been infected by the coronavirus. More than 120,000 have died. Thousands of new infections are being reported each day. As one former senior official told @JamesFallows, “Here we stand, on a mountain of dead.” https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/06/how-white-house-coronavirus-response-went-wrong/613591/
