Wright also cites “Crimson Contagion,” a 2019 exercise led by Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services that included the Pentagon, the National Security Council, major hospitals, health-care organizations and a dozen state governments. In the exercise, tourists contracted a novel influenza during a China trip and quickly spread it across the world. Agencies couldn’t agree who was in charge; cities challenged recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; ventilators and protective equipment for medical workers were insufficient; business struggled to remain open. With no vaccine, nearly 600,000 Americans soon died. It was “spookily predictive of what was to come,” Wright emphasizes, but few reforms were instituted in response.