[triceratops]

> The US is a federation of states, and generally internal matters (like stopping the spread of a virus in your state) are not the purview of the executive branch.

These states aren't islands though - they mostly share land borders, freeways connect them, and people freely travel between them every day. The virus doesn't know state borders. If the federal government can insert itself into random state affairs by citing the interstate commerce clause, I don't see how it can wash its hands of responsibility for this debacle.