A week before President Trump's inauguration in January 2017, his top aides went through a transition exercise with members of the outgoing Obama administration where they were briefed on a scenario much like the current COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Politico reports.
The point of the briefing was to show the gravity of situations a president can face and reinforce the president's responsibility to protect Americans. In the scenario presented to the Trump team, a strain of novel influenza called H9N2 first swept through Asia, overwhelming hospitals across the continent, then became a global threat, reaching the United States with a warning that "this could be the worst influenza pandemic since 1918." They were given challenges, including not having enough ventilators at hospitals, and were told having a coordinated response was "paramount," Politico reports.
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