Navarro’s primary suggestion, in the January 29 memo, for fighting the outbreak was a travel ban from China, which Trump did impose and which worked … well, look around you and judge if that was sufficient. That policy proposal may have affected the seriousness with which Navarro’s warning was taken, since Navarro is always looking for excuses to take action against China. A “senior administration official” told Axios that “The January travel memo struck me as an alarmist attempt to bring attention to Peter’s anti-China agenda while presenting an artificially limited range of policy options.”

In a February 23 memo, Navarro warned, “There is an increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1-2 million souls” and estimated, “We can expect to need at least a billion face masks, 200,000 Tyvek suits, and 11,000 ventilator circuits, and 25,000 PAPRs (powered air-purifying respirators).”

Navarro’s memos circulated at the White House, but while his China travel ban played to Trump’s general impulses, Trump was less interested in the broader warnings. On January 30, the day after Navarro’s first memo, Trump claimed “We have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment—five. And those people are all recuperating successfully.” In late February, reality was starting to sink in occasionally, but Trump was still saying things like “It’s going to disappear. One day—it’s like a miracle—it will disappear.”

Add Navarro’s warning to the list of other warnings about pandemics Trump ignored and systems for detecting and fighting pandemics Trump dismantled:

Presumably Navarro’s memos made it to the press to counteract the terrible day of press his “I have a PhD” arrogance around his push for unproven treatments got him on Monday. And he remains obsessed with his hatred of China. In general, he’s a member of the Trump administration for a reason. But he did issue a warning, and Trump, as usual, ignored everything but the racially divisive part.