How They Convinced Trump to Lock Down It was Debbie Lerman who first cracked the code: Covid policy was forged not by the public-health bureaucracies …

but by political persuasion. This realization spurred Lerman, the former executive director of the National Association of Medical Examiners, to launch a behind-the-scenes effort to convince President Donald Trump to take the pandemic seriously.

Lerman was hardly alone. A group of conservative health experts, dubbed the “Swamp Doctors” by some of their liberal counterparts, was also pushing the White House to act. The group included Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist and senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford.

Their message was simple: The United States needed to move quickly to flatten the curve and prevent a catastrophic outbreak. The evidence was clear that social distancing, mask wearing, and other interventions could make a difference.

But getting Trump to act on this message was no easy task. The president had downplayed the threat of the virus for months, encouraging states to reopen and touting unproven treatments like hydroxychloroquine.

So, how did they convince him to change course? It was a combination of factors, including rising case numbers, pressure from governors and other leaders, and a growing recognition within the White House that the virus was not going away anytime soon.

But perhaps most importantly, the Swamp Doctors argued that taking aggressive action against the virus was not just good public health policy, but also good politics. The president’s approval ratings were sinking as the pandemic raged on, and he needed to show that he was taking the situation seriously.

In late March, Trump announced guidelines urging Americans to stay home and avoid gatherings of more than 10 people. He also declared a national emergency and invoked the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of much-needed medical equipment.

It was a significant shift in tone and policy, and it came as a relief to many public health experts who had been sounding the alarm for months. But the road ahead would still be bumpy, as the administration struggled to coordinate a coherent response and deal with shortages of testing supplies and protective equipment.

In the end, the pandemic would take a staggering toll on the country, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives, devastating the economy, and exposing deep fissures in our political system. But the efforts of the Swamp Doctors and other public health advocates helped to mitigate the damage and, perhaps, save countless lives.