The recommendations they were getting from WHO were telling them, in short, “this is bad”. Congress was advised as such, hence the two assholes from NC and GA dumping stock right after the advisory meeting (at the end of January) and making money on our (yours AND my) collective suffering. To that end, the Trump narrative doesn’t add up.
Trump went to Fauci and asked “what if we just let this wash over the country” and Fauci reportedly responded “people are going to die”.