Good thing I post elsewhere, since my posts on Swine Flu/H1N1 were mostly on the CE board. Contrary to what Klain said (and he admitted he wasn't involved in the H1N1 response), H1N1 was handled quite well by the Obama Administration. With regard to testing, as per the wiki page on this, the first US case was 4/17 (and it hit the US earlier than almost anywhere, as it started in Mexico in early Spring) and the CDC had test kits out to all 50 states by 5/6, a mere 3 weeks later, way faster than we had testing available for COVID (it took ~6 weeks: first US case on 1/21 and testing widely available in early March - and it took 8-9 weeks to have testing volume at a barely adequate level).
And with regard to reducing testing in July, by then it was clear that the outbreak was no worse than any typical flu (and in fact it ended up being less deadly than a typical flu, partly due to fast development/deployment of a vaccine), so investing tons of resources on testing everyone didn't seem to be worth the investment at that point H1N1 ended up being even less worse than a normal flu season with 12,000 deaths vs an "average" flu season of 34,000 deaths (with twice as many people infected, so the infection fatality ratio was around 0.025 vs. 0.1 for flu). These were the words of Canadian expert Dr. Rau in late April:
"I don't agree with (the WHO) because I think it's a panic metre, not a pandemic metre. [...] If that flu-like illness is not deadly, I don't know what the cause for alarm is for people who are not really sickened by this virus. [...] I'm really eager to know how much worse this is than seasonal flu. So far it's looking like it's not that serious."
web.archive.org
en.wikipedia.org
They didn't declare a national emergency right away because they didn't need to (they did declare a public health emergency to secure the needed funding); they also spearheaded an incredible effort by the CDC/FDA and private vaccine makers to bring a vaccine on-line in 6 months in time for the fall flu season. And, of course, we got "lucky" that it wasn't far worse, but we have no idea how the Obama/Biden administration would've responded to a COVID-like pandemic. Based on the very fast rollout of testing and record speed for a vaccine, I'd like to think they would have done very well.
More details are in the linked article below, which is excerpted in italics.
In tweets and other appearances, President Donald Trump has repeatedly compared his response to the new coronavirus with President Barack Obama’s handling of the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. But Trump’s information is frequently incorrect or misleading -- and the two viruses are very different.
www.factcheck.org
𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱’𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘖𝘣𝘢𝘮𝘢 𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘥 “𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨,” 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏1𝘕1 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬, 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺, 𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘦’𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸.
𝘖𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘋𝘊 𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘶𝘴, 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘬𝘪𝘵𝘴, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘳𝘶𝘨 𝘈𝘥𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴, 𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.
𝘙𝘦𝘱. 𝘔𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘭 𝘉𝘶𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘴, 𝘢 𝘙𝘦𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘛𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘴, 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘋𝘊 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 2016 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘷𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘶 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘹 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘴 — 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 2009. “𝘚𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘢 6-𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘐’𝘮 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘶𝘴, 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘷𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦, 𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘵, 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘤𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦,” 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥.
