[Taikonerd]

> there was no central public health department

If only we had some sort of federal Center in charge of Disease Control... ;-)

But I agree with you that the CDC was weirdly passive during COVID. You'd think it would have been their moment to shine.

[ambicapter]

From what I remember, there was a LOT of resistance to whatever the CDC said during Covid. Kind of a defining characteristic of that time period.