Ben Trump (US Army) joins the Infectious Historians for a wide-ranging conversation. He begins with his public health work before Covid and his path to the US Army. Ben then outlines the Covid pandemic through his experience of working on several related projects, already since January/February 2020. Some of these included how Covid might spread in the US’ Pacific islands to figure out the responses needed there, or how to solve basic questions (such as where would personal protective equipment or ventilators go). Ben also shares his experience in trying to draw connections between historical pandemics and our current experience, arguing that the historical case studies are useful in several aspects, for example in how people deal with risk.