It took another two months before the Trump administration would declare COVID-19 a national health emergency on March 13th, 2020. Historians will not find much to admire in the US response to the COVID-19 crisis, nor the response of many other Western governments. In the US, not only did the government fail to acknowledge the reality and severity of the crisis in time, but it also failed to ensure dissemination of accurate information, as well as the procurement and distribution of essential medical and health supplies. For many in the West, recollections of the early part of 2020 and the pandemic are punctuated by images of shortages of basic supplies like masks and disinfectants, and images of mounting death tolls.