Something you may have noticed over the past three years and change is that the Trump administration is completely incompetent. Given its inability to get through the day without screwing up seemingly straightforward matters, like not tweeting photos of special-ops forces currently in war zones, it was probably always going to be too much to ask that it have any earthly clue how to fight a pandemic. Still, if provided with a step-by-step guide re: what to do about an emerging infectious disease—as Team Trump was!—one might have hoped that the literate ones in the bunch could at least read the playbook and follow its directions. Apparently, though, that too was too big an ask.

Politico reports that in 2016, the Obama administration created a 69-page National Security Council playbook that included hundreds of tactics and policy decisions to “prevent, slow, or mitigate the spread of an emerging infectious disease threat.” So simple one would think even Donald Trump could follow it, the guide asks questions like “Is there sufficient personal protective equipment for health care workers who are providing medical care? If YES: What are the triggers to signal exhaustion of supplies? Are additional supplies available? If NO: Should the Strategic National Stockpile release PPE to states?”

In addition to practical matters related to things like sufficient personal protective equipment—a dearth of which is a gigantic problem as health professionals try to deal with the surging coronavirus—the guide urges the government to present a “unified message” in order to effectively address the public’s concerns. “Early coordination of risk communications through a single federal spokesperson is critical,” the playbook advises. Viewed as a corrective to initial stumbling by global leaders on the 2014–2015 Ebola crisis, the formally named “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents,” aka “the pandemic playbook,” was created to ensure responses to subsequent pandemics would be better handled. “While each emerging infectious disease threat will present itself in a unique way, a consistent, capabilities-based approach to addressing these threats will allow for faster decisions with more targeted expert subject matter input from federal departments and agencies,” the playbook reads. Based on the seriousness of the situation—normal, elevated threat, credible threat, or official public health emergency—the guide lays out corresponding strategies for policymakers to adopt. For instance, in the case of a credible threat—which the coronavirus was by early-to-mid January—the guidance recommended “early budget and financial analysis of various response scenarios and an early decision to request supplemental funding from Congress.” And yet:

…the Trump administration waited more than a month to ask for emergency funding after the timeline laid out in the playbook.