[suzzer99]

Originally Posted by Chief Pagan

If health authorities do nothing and our hospitals get overwhelmed and there aren’t enough ICU and ventilators for the 5% who get really sick then there is hell to pay.

If by taking strong action and successfully quarantining those who get sick the virus isn’t much worse than the standard flu, then everyone says see it was all just hype.

Seems to me you still want to have contingency plans for the worst, and have a smart response while trying to dampen down the inevitable panic that will get whipped up by some.

From the reddit thread posted earlier:

"China’s bold approach to contain the rapid spread of this new respiratory pathogen has changed the course of a rapidly escalating and deadly epidemic. In the face of a previously unknown virus, China has rolled out perhaps the most ambitious, agile and aggressive disease containment effort in history. China’s uncompromising and rigorous use of non-pharmaceutical measures to contain transmission of the COVID-19 virus in multiple settings provides vital lessons for the global response. This rather unique and unprecedented public health response in China reversed the escalating cases in both Hubei, where there has been widespread community transmission, and in the importation provinces, where family clusters appear to have driven the outbreak."

"Much of the global community is not yet ready, in mindset and materially, to implement the measures that have been employed to contain COVID-19 in China. These are the only measures that are currently proven to interrupt or minimize transmission chains in humans. Fundamental to these measures is extremely proactive surveillance to immediately detect cases, very rapid diagnosis and immediate case isolation, rigorous tracking and quarantine of close contacts, and an exceptionally high degree of population understanding and acceptance of these measures."

I don't think the US could ever lock down a whole city (the size of NYC) like China. People just wouldn't stand for it here. But it's very likely we could be doing more to slow the spread - if we had any idea how bad the spread actually is at the moment.