They thought they could actually hide a pandemic?
Because it would be good for the reelection.
So they went to Jared instead of Dr. Science.

President Trump didn’t want to make preparations for the coronavirus pandemic because he was concerned doing so would sent the stock market into a panic, the Financial Times reports.

Said one Trump confidant: “Jared had been arguing that testing too many people, or ordering too many ventilators, would spook the markets and so we just shouldn’t do it… That advice worked far more powerfully on Trump than what the scientists were saying. He thinks they always exaggerate