The CDC appears to have had advanced knowledge of the coronavirus pandemic outbreak, as the agency which deliberately delayed testing kits in the USA for nearly a month was hiring quarantine program advisors in November of 2019, to cover Texas, New York, California, Washington, Florida and many other areas where the pandemic is now exploding.

This job listing page at jobs.CDC.gov describes job announcement number HHS-CDC-D3-20-10640010, paying up to $93,077 per year, with an open application period from Nov. 15th, 2019 to May 15th, 2020.

The cities and states described in the job listing are:

Dallas, Texas, El Paso, Texas, Houston, Texas, Seattle, Washington, Anchorage, Alaska, Los Angeles, California, San Diego, California, San Francisco, California, Miami, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, Honolulu, Hawaii, Chicago, Illinois, Boston, Massachusetts, Detroit, Michigan, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Newark, New Jersey, New York, New York, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, San Juan.

Here’s a screen shot of the listing:

Job duties

Here’s a description of the job duties:

“Assist in planning and implementing a program for preventing the importation of communicable diseases from abroad and spread of these diseases domestically.”, “Monitor disease trends and consults with senior leaders to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to prevent the introduction/spread of communicable diseases by travelers, etiologic agents or vectors.”, “Provide technical assistance, consultation and guidance to national, state and/or local agencies; health organizations; federal, state and local law enforcement agencies; airport and seaport activities; hospital networks, and other private entities.”, “Ensure appropriate communication networks, planning documents and emergency response protocols are in place, tested and regularly updated.”, “Develop and present training to various governmental agencies and local partners on emergency response protocols, communicable diseases and quarantine activities.”

Epidemiology, emergency preparedness and emerging infectious disease

This job listing also contains a section entitled, “Other information” which adds these interesting notes:

Additional selections may be made within the same geographical location CDC-wide. The utilization of shared certificates within multiple Centers of the Center of Disease Control and Prevention may be used from this vacancy announcement for specialties to include but not limited to: Applied Epidemiology, Behavioral Epidemiology, Chronic Diseases, Emergency Preparedness and Response, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Environmental Health, HIV/AIDS, Immunization, Infectious Diseases (e.g. Viral, Parasitic, etc.), Influenza, Malaria, Non-communicable Diseases, Outbreak Investigations, Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs), Surveillance, Tropical Medicine, Tuberculosis (TB), Viral Hepatitis, and/or Zoonotic Diseases.