It's amazing we had so much lead time, but American exceptionalism and the belief that ugly things only happen in other parts of the world caused us to squander it all.

There's so much we could have done, but we aren't going to fully wake up until the critically ill are packed in hospital hallways.

It may be the best way to deal with this pandemic but it's questionable if western culture is compatible with these measures. People are way more openly critical in the democracies. Protests are often infectious.

The solution to poor leadership in crisis planning and action is not to give those same leaders unprecedented power.

This sort of outbreak is exactly the type of crisis for which we rely on governments to plan. Here we are facing an oncoming hurricane and proposing draconian, untested, and unplanned solutions and people driven by fear are willing to give up any rights they have for un-guaranteed safety.