Senate report spotlights systemic problems behind early COVID response missteps

From the earliest days of the COVID-19 outbreak in China to the first surge of infections around the U.S. in 2020, a new report penned by Senate Democrats, released Thursday, blasted the initial efforts to curb the virus as "one of the worst public health responses in U.S. history."

Gleaned from interviews and documents from key former officials across the administration, the 242-page report from Democrats on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is just the latest to try and shed new light on territory already well-trodden by a cascade of retrospectives. 

Along with some federal agencies' own internal reckonings, the committee joins a crowded field including the National Academies, the Government Accountability Office, and fellow Democrats in the House that have sought to retrace pandemic missteps.