FEMA becomes Lead Federal Agency in charge of US COVID-19 response, not HHS!

According to retrospective research, starting on March 18, 2020, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) replaced Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (which comprises the CDC, NIAID, NIH and other public-health-related agencies ) as the Lead Federal Agency, officially in charge of the US government’s COVID-19 response, where the National Security Council (NSC) is in charge of policy.

This is contrary to established Pandemic Plans which placed HHS at the helm, and FEMA would normally handle earthquakes and finre, and not be involved in a public health incident, to which they had not advanced notice and were not prepared.  FEMA stated in their Jan 2021 report: “When the White House directed FEMA to lead operations, COVID-19 became the first national pandemic response that FEMA has led since the agency was established in 1979.”