"The response of a nation with over 330 million inhabitants to a pandemic virus is never in the hands of a single individual. There are complicated planning documents, protocols, laws and directives that have been developed and updated over the decades to address such emergencies. Multiple government departments and agencies are assigned various roles and responsibilities in the implementation and coordination of such operations. If we want to evaluate whether an individual, group or agency “botched the pandemic” we should start by comparing their actions to the plans that were laid out for such emergencies. We can also go a step back and look at the plans to see whether we think they were sound. So what was the official US Covid pandemic response plan? What was the goal? How was success to be measured? Where is the demonstration of the relationship between the means and ends? As noted in my previous article, we – the public – have no idea."
