Pre‑COVID Plans Opposed Harsh NPIs

Weeks before COVID, WHO and Johns Hopkins surveyed non‑pharmaceutical interventions and found weak evidence for measures like broad closures, quarantines, and border controls, warning of high social costs. Yet in 2020–21, institutions adopted those very measures, particularly school closures, at scale. This gap between playbook and practice helps explain why trust eroded. — If official plans cautioned against sweeping NPIs, the pandemic response becomes a case study in evidence‑ignoring governance with lasting implications for public health legitimacy.