At the beginning of 2020 the author Lawrence Wright published a novel in which he imagined a deadly virus outbreak that swept the globe. He couldn’t have predicted that as that book hit the shops real life was eerily mimicking his plot. As a reporter for the New Yorker, Wright had been reporting on pandemics for decades and was ideally placed to chart the spread of Covid-19.
He tells Anushka Asthana that what unfolded was to become America’s deadliest year, with half a million people lost to the virus. Inside the White House, there were experts desperately trying to influence the president to change course on key decisions. But the story of the initial Covid response, argues Wright, was one of a significant political failure.
Cips from: CNBC, CNN, BBC, BFI, National Archive, CSPAN, the Reagan Foundation, the Trump White House Archive, Full Court Press, CBS 60 Minutes, Fox News, New York Times, WWJ 950, NBC, The Majority Report with Sam Snyder, KUSI News, TV11, KFYR TV, ABC
Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
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