Warnings went unheeded

Before Virus Outbreak, a Cascade of Warnings Went Unheeded

David E. Sanger, Eric Lipton, Eileen Sullivan and Michael Crowley

Government exercises, including one last year, made clear that the U.S. was not ready for a pandemic like the coronavirus. But little was done. The outbreak of the respiratory virus began in China and was quickly spread around the world by air travelers, who ran high fevers. In the United States, it was first detected in Chicago, and 47 days later, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. By then it was too late: 110 million Americans were expected to become ill, leading to 7.7 million hospitalized and 586,000 dead. Read more