Three years on, the pandemic — and our response — have been jolting. Here’s what even the experts didn’t see coming

(STAT – by Helen Branswell) People who study infectious diseases and who work in public health have long known a bad pandemic would one day come. They knew such an event would overwhelm hospitals, strain supply chains, and place stresses on society that we would be ill-equipped to meet. Countries like the United States have for decades prepared to respond to such a crisis.