Not familiar much with US laws, but imo insider trading charges dont require them discussing stocks specifically. I think its enough if in the meeting they discussed non-public info on how serious corona impact might be on US (like classified US scientific reports or classified info from other gov). And if you cant prove insider trading (f.e. all the info was public), you can still try to charge them for abusing info obtained while in state service. What happened there is not normal and they should be punished.