This is the USNORTHCOM's 2017, unclassified, Branch Plan for Pandemic Influenza and Infectious Disease. There are presumably many, many more like it. The Pentagon gave more than ample thought to the consequences of a pandemic on our military posture. scribd.com/document/45442…
One passage strikes me. If the President had no idea that these plans existed (and clearly he didn't--or at least, he keeps insisting that "no one could have seen this coming"), does he have any idea that this classified protocol also exists? 
Would such a protocol be put into effect without the knowledge of the Commander in Chief? I've always wondered who's actually running the US since Trump was elected, but this seems an especially important moment to ask this question. Esper? Haspel? Redfield?
Wouldn't it be good to have one person who can act sort of like a CEO, in a situation like this? A single person with the authority to adjudicate among all these competing interests, someone formally designated as a chief commander, so to speak ...
I don't know how we'd choose that person, though. "Elections" might be a way to bestow democratic legitimacy on the office, but maybe for a role that important it shouldn't come down to a popularity contest. God knows who the People might choose.
I suppose Congress could choose this person, but that would upset the balance of power among the three branches of government. But a direct popular vote would obviously be a stupid idea.
I'm not sure what the solution is, really. I don't know why the Founders didn't think about this.
