There was a Plague outbreak in 1900-1904 in San Fransisco’s Chinatown.
It was detected early on, but the city fathers simply refused to acknowledge that there could be plague in Their Fair City.
As a result they fiddle-farted around for years before doing anything effectual. Plague spread from the street and sewer rats to the local ground squirrel population and thence now uncontainable, to the entire western US.
Any parallels one may wish to draw to a more recent gayer plague are purely coincidence.
Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.
Today, the third lesson is massive quantities of un-screened un-quarantined, untreated, diseased invaders in every city and burg nation wide.
Passing grade is stopping an emerging disease early and well.
Failing grade is death.
I learned from your post and salute you for how well written it was.