Quote:
Originally Posted by JSH
Yes, it was on the news. Just like Ebola, SARS, MERS and H1N1 were on the news but never effected daily life in the USA. The federal government said things were under control and we would be OK.
Is it our fault for believing them?
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Okay you have a bit of a point, I wasn't worried either until I heard reports of community spread at the end of Feb. For me personally, having seen the news about how bad it was in Asia, that would've been the moment where if I were in a position of power, I would immediately say "stop large gatherings, work from home if possible, produce as many masks and face shields as possible, and where are the tests?".
However that's not what I saw from other people, who were entirely unconcerned until 2 weeks later.
Don't get me wrong, the message coming from the federal government is an important input into people's risk assessment. It's just prudent to look at the system and see that we had multiple points of failure from the CDC and FDA to the White House to the state governments.