The PREDICT program worked with foreign labs to identify viruses with the potential to become pandemics. The program trained scientists around the world to accomplish that, and had identified 160 new novel coronaviruses before shutting down just before this one, SARS-CoV-2, emerged. Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab that ultimately did catch the emergence of COVID-19, was part of the PREDICT program.

PREDICT was launched in 2009 and funded through two five-year cycles before the Trump administration defunded it just in time for the exact scenario it was supposed to catch. It joins a genuinely astonishing list of other canceled programs and missed warnings.

Every time one of these stories comes up, you think “this is ridiculous, there can’t possibly be any more missed warnings.” And practically every day, we learn about a new one.