Why has the U.S. COVID-19 response been so bad? Jared Kushner, Vanity Fair suggests.

President Trump and his White House say they've done a great job responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, but by most metrics, including cases and deaths, the U.S. resembles a failed state. Vanity Fair's Katherine Eban "wanted to better understand how the U.S., with its advanced medical systems, unmatched epidemiological know-how, and vaunted regulatory and public health institutions, could have fumbled the crisis so disastrously," she wrote in an article published Thursday. Her pen ended up pointing at Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and overburdened senior adviser.

Specifically, Eban blamed Kushner and his "shadow" coronavirus task force's "quasi-messianic belief in the private sector's ability to respond effectively to the crisis and their contempt for government capabilities." She previously reported that Kushner's team had developed a comprehensive national COVID-19 testing plan — then scrapped it after deciding the coronavirus was a blue-state problem. In her new article, she pieced together the March 21 meeting where everything fell apart, using "recollections, notes, and calendar entries from three people who attended the meeting," the quotations "based on the recollections of one or more individual attendees."

"That's when I was like, We're screwed," the attendee told Vanity Fair. Read more about how Kushner and key allies put their faith in consultants, made some shady deals involving Kodak and Russia, and arguably failed America at Vanity Fair.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up