A side issue to the point of the article (great article, by the way) we actually were prepared - we'd been prepared for decades. It was in the few years before covid that the front defences were pulled down and stripped of funding. I can only thank the earth, the heavens, and every god that was ever believed in that, despite their faults (and like all politicians they have many) it was Obama and Biden in the White House when ebola struck. Imagine if that had been mismanaged / ignored / played down like covid - it would be raging round the world now.