“The measures have been extreme for a free and open country but they were implemented early.”
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It wasn’t addressed nationally until this last week, it’s been here since at least January - individually people who were aware of the danger became prepared even though most Americans weren’t aware and/or didn’t want to hear the news, but we are very late to the game as a nation.
That is just not true. This has been the biggest story, though bigger stories are out there, since the Diamond Princess had infections onboard and was reported on daily.
You seem to believe, or at least give the impression, that the president can flip a switch and the resources are available.
Well that is a misconception. The CDC response was the real problem here.
They were very slow to get test kits manufactured, that may be because the CDC relied on China to produce the test kits, I don't know what the reason was. I do know that the CDC had strayed way off the mandate that they were created for, that being a rapid response agency to deal with viral outbreaks. They have been testing what affects alcohol has on monkeys, gee they get drunk, who would have guessed. They have studied why Lesbians are overweight, could it be they are lesbians because they are fat and thus less attractive to a vast majority of males? My point is these were things the CDC should have never participated in to begin with.
President Trump immediately stopped all incoming from China, and the Democrats and media railed against him calling him xenophobic and racist, but he did it anyway. On top of that they try to hamper his ability to deal with any thing head on, because they want to micromanage this president on everything.
The president is not a dictator, nor does he act like one, although the press and Democrats equate him constantly to vicious dictators current & past.
The panic that has ensued has been 100 times more disastrous than this virus has been. To date 3,083 cases in the U.S. have been confirmed, 60 deaths (1.9% - average age 80), 56 recoveries (1.8%), with 2,967 still infected (96.7%). These numbers ballooned when test kits became more available. I contend that the death, recovered and still infected rates are inaccurate because the number of unreported cases is unknown, so they cannot be figured into the equations to provide a more accurate picture. By that I mean those who contracted the virus, figured it was the flu, or maybe even a cold, and never sought medical assistance.
Had the president declared a national emergency when confirmed cases were in the couple hundreds, and deaths in the lowers 10s, everyone would have howled that he was overreacting and fearmongering, even while the press and Democrats were actively fearmongering.
We are in no way very late as a nation as you proclaim. In 2009 President Obama didn't declare a national emergency until there were over 1,000 deaths and 100s of thousands infected by the H1N1 swine flu. I can't remember exactly how long had passed since infections started appearing, but I think that declaration came at least 9 months into it, and perhaps even a full year after. But it wasn't as immediate as this declaration was established.