Trump insisted 'nobody ever thought of' a pandemic like COVID-19. His administration did, last year.

Trump talks coronavirus
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Trump insisted Thursday that his administration was prepared for the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, but he also said: "Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion. Nobody has ever seen anything like this before. ... Nobody ever thought of numbers like this." It turns out that his administration had gamed out an eerily similar pandemic over the first half of 2019, The New York Times reports, and issued recommendations in October that highlighted how unprepared the U.S. was to deal with such a respiratory virus outbreak.

The simulation, called "Crimson Contagion," was run by the Health and Human Services Department with participation from 12 states and more than a dozen federal agencies, including the Pentagon, Homeland Security Department, and National Security Council, the Times reports. It tried to model what would happen if an influenza pandemic that started in China spread through the U.S. with no treatment, leaving 7.7 million Americans hospitalized and 586,000 dead.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.