In a three-part documentary, The Washington Post explores why the Trump administration failed to contain the coronavirus pandemic, despite decades of preparation in Washington. The film features interviews with The Post’s Chief Correspondent Dan Balz and National Health Reporter Yasmeen Abutaleb, as well as first-hand accounts from key officials from past White House administrations.
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The three-part series is now available:
- Part I ‘Fair warning’: Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush never faced a pandemic, but both came to understand what a major global health crisis could mean for the United States, and each took steps to prepare…
- Part II ‘Guided by the Science’: President Barack Obama put pandemic preparedness to the side upon taking office, focusing instead on an economy in free fall. But the 2009 outbreak of H1N1, the first flu pandemic in 40 years, made health security an urgent priority for his administration; later, it would confront the emergence of Ebola in West Africa…
- Part III ‘Playing it down’: Despite decades of warnings and preparation, President Trump has claimed that the novel coronavirus “came out of nowhere.” He downplayed the coronavirus as it began to take hold in the United States, disregarding the advice of experts and politicizing a health crisis.
