Wow.... Bob Woodward bombshell...
Could have saved lives? Definitely.
Economy? No way. Look at countries that acted right away. Economy is just as bad if not worse. Regardless, he would have needed to shut down the country and kill the economy.
Disagree - had everything shut down the virus Numbers probably would have been really low what do you think would happen after 3 months of low numbers? A reopening...look at Israel! In hindsight You wouldn't open like Israel either - that's only now after you see what went on in Israel... To say that had we just known how deadly/catchy the virus is lives would've definitely been saved is wrong. We never saw a bad reopening, a NYC, a Sweden, We probably would've went the Israeli route at the minimum - and Israel saw a NYC and still did it that way....