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Thread on what we found: The White House got its first formal notification about coronavirus on Jan 3. Within days, US spy agencies were signaling the seriousness of the threat by including the first of many warnings in the President’s Daily Brief https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?no_nav=true&p9w22b2p=b2p22p9w00098&tid=a_classic-iphone">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-...
An internal March GOP poll showed that far more Republicans than Democrats were influenced by Trump’s dismissive depictions of the virus. “Denial is not likely to be a successful strategy for survival,” the pollster concluded. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?no_nav=true&p9w22b2p=b2p22p9w00098&tid=a_classic-iphone">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-...
The top health official, Azar, called Trump on Jan. 18 to warn him about coronavirus. Before he could get a word in, Trump interjected to berate him about a fumbled vaping flavor ban. Azar asked a confidante for advice about how to break through to Trump https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?no_nav=true&p9w22b2p=b2p22p9w00098&tid=a_classic-iphone">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-...
In early February, deputy NSC adviser Matt Pottinger wanted to ban travel to Europe as more cases popped up. He was backed by health officials like Fauci. But Mnuchin and others pushed back over concerns about the economy and prevailed https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?no_nav=true&p9w22b2p=b2p22p9w00098&tid=a_classic-iphone">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-...
There was little thought put into the makeup of the president’s coronavirus task force, which for weeks focused almost entirely on repatriation. “It wasn’t a comprehensive, whole-of-gov response,” one official said. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?no_nav=true&p9w22b2p=b2p22p9w00098&tid=a_classic-iphone">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-...
There were drawn out fights over a supplemental request to fight the virus b/w the WH and health agencies. At one point, a deputy in the budget office accused Azar of preemptively lobbying Congress for a gigantic sum that WH officials had no interest in. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?no_nav=true&p9w22b2p=b2p22p9w00098&tid=a_classic-iphone">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-...
The delays in finally sending a supplemental to Congress, then getting it signed meant the US missed a narrow window to stockpile ventilators, masks and other protective gear before the US was bidding against many desperate nations https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?no_nav=true&p9w22b2p=b2p22p9w00098&tid=a_classic-iphone">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-...
In late March, the administration ordered 10k ventilators (NY alone has asked for ~30k). Many will not arrive until summer or fall https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?no_nav=true&p9w22b2p=b2p22p9w00098&tid=a_classic-iphone">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-...
On testing: The first mistake came by a misplaced assessment by health officials (based on very limited available data) that the outbreak would be limited in scale and the CDC test would be enough, as it had been for most previous outbreaks. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?arc404=true">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-...
Some worried the CDC test wouldn& #39;t be enough in case there was a surge of cases. When FDA leaders consulted HHS on whether Hahn should reach out to private companies for help and whether it would be bad optics, they believed they should stand down. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?arc404=true">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-...
In a mid-February Situation Room meeting, Fauci and CDC director Redfield told White House officials there was not yet evidence of worrisome person-to-person transmission. It was almost certainly spreading - but even top experts had little meaningful data https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?arc404=true">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-...
During a Feb. 27 call to resolve testing issues, an FDA official lashed out at the CDC because of a failure to meet basic quality control standards. He told them if he were inspecting a commercial entity, "I would shut you down." https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/?arc404=true">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-...