I've worked on pandemic planning for King County and we did county agency planning and conducted a major exercise for the county on that topic, with the County Executive and all his department directors participating.
At the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) and the Center for Regional Disaster Resilience (CRDR) a very large Blue Cascades Pandemic Flu Exercise (2007) was held followed up by a regional pandemic planning effort, see COMPREHENSIVE COMMUNITY BIO-EVENT RESILIENCE ACTION PLAN FOR THE PUGET SOUND REGION (2010).
Lastly, there is this TED Talk by Bill Gates in 2015 on The next outbreak? We’re not ready.
Ah, people who cared to be informed, knew that this COVID-19 Pandemic and worse, was very possible.