[Proud90sKid]

I think that a large part of the problem is that media has cried wolf so many times with hyping. Bird flu was going to kill us all in the 2000s (they talked about that in the media constantly but not much came of it), then swine flu (turned out to be the number 1 cause of flu in 2009 but it really just turned out to be an ordinary flu), then ebola in 2014 was going to "possibly outbreak in the US", then in 2016 it was Zika that was going to be the next big thing and also cause lots of birth defects--now we dont hear about Zika.

When I first heard about Coronavirus I just assumed it was more hype at first. Then I thought it was one of those things that "everyone else" was worried about but probably wouldnt turn into anything. A lot of Americans felt the same. I was one of those beach goers in Florida not paying heed to the seriousness of the situation during spring break.

But now- shit has hit the fan and now I realize this is real. I think we went so many years without a "real" pandemic that it felt impossible to occur. I dont think anyone really feared an ebola outbreak in the US or anything- it was just "fun to speculate on hypothetical scenarios" by the media and the general public. Now we are paying the price because there is no way that Americans would have stood for all this shutdown a couple of months ago when it was not taken so seriously. Trump did a poor job in predicting what would happen but even if he had the facts right I think it would have been impossible to implement this in the US any earlier than late Feb/March. In January- I think the average american thought of coronavirus as some "foreign disease" , while in february it was seen as maybe a repeat of the 2009 swine flu. If they tried to shutter businesses then , there would be so much protest it would be unbelievable.

This is wrecking the economy and convincing Americans that that is a fair trade off is a tough sell. I don't think it would have been politically possible to have done that until it actually got real in the US. People don't think as much about a virus in a faraway land (there are lots of foreign diseases that carry no risk to Americans- malaria, SARS in 2003, etc. ) and there is no way that shuttering the economy "just in case this thing comes here" would be accepted politically. Even if that politician did prevent the outbreak- they would be a hero, but would only be recognized as the "incompetent person who ruined the best economy ever over "the flu". They would definitely stand no chance of re-election.


Also: why the fuck is everyone blaming Trump while at the same time insisting we not call this the Chinese disease? China LITERALLY arrested the doctor(Li Wenliang) who made the coronavirus public to the world just before New years. How can anyone believe that China was not trying to cover this up? December was only when the whistleblower decided to do the heroic thing and make things public. I am fully convinced that the virus probably evolved in October or even September...and then started peaking in December/January for China.

China did not have proper sanitary policies in place to ensure that food is handled properly. Meat markets are highly unhygienic. The conditions at the meat markets made it much more possible for some virus to be transmitted to humans via genetic mutation. The first SARS coronavirus came from China- now it has happened again, but a lot worse. Yet it somehow racist to criticize the Chinese government? I do not hate Chinese people, but the fact is , is that China's government did a terrible job. Lots of diverted attention to the fact that China "eradicated" the virus already--but that is only because they don't care about the individual. Need meds? Food? Out of luck. Only such a strict regime could implement such a policy. We are doing social distancing in America because we recognize the fact that Americans need to go out to get food , meds, etc. So a total lockdown is not really possible.

Few people seem to care that alerting the world to what is clearly now a global health and economic crisis was seen as illegal and unacceptable to Chinese authorities....because that is too politically incorrect for some people who would rather criticize the "evil" Trump.