[Genuine Realist]

Really, you only need two datapoints.

Spread in China significant enough for the Chinese government to institute a total lockdown of Wuhan and a pretty harsh nationwide quarantine AND
Evidence of community transmission in the US.

Once you had those two data points, the second of which was confirmed by the CDC on Feb. 26, that should have been enough to act. You should have been preparing before then. At that point, you know that the virus is deadly, that it spreads quickly, and that it is already in the US.

But if that's not enough, between Feb 21 and Feb 28, the Dow Jones lost 3,700 points or 13%.  The market figured out that it was a big deal.  Why didn't the President?

BC

This gets very, very old.

Indeed the President did not figure it out. Neither did Merkel . . .  nor Macron . .  nor Boris Johnson . . . nor any of their health ministers, most of whom have resigned. Which leads me to believe that the actual tipping point occurs sometime in the first week in March. That's when enough data accumulates that ALL of these leaders decide almost simultaneously to require drastic action. That's the almost unavoidable inference from the timeline. 

You and Terry write as if Trump is sailing blithely along while the rest of the world is screaming warnings and running for cover. But that's not what happened. Everyone was sailing blithely along and no one was running for cover.

This is my last post on the subject. I know we understand each other. Restating uncontroverted facts gets old.

[Genuine Realist]

Really, you only need two datapoints.

Spread in China significant enough for the Chinese government to institute a total lockdown of Wuhan and a pretty harsh nationwide quarantine AND
Evidence of community transmission in the US.

Once you had those two data points, the second of which was confirmed by the CDC on Feb. 26, that should have been enough to act. You should have been preparing before then. At that point, you know that the virus is deadly, that it spreads quickly, and that it is already in the US.

But if that's not enough, between Feb 21 and Feb 28, the Dow Jones lost 3,700 points or 13%.  The market figured out that it was a big deal.  Why didn't the President?

BC

This gets very, very old.

Indeed the President did not figure it out. Neither did Merkel . . .  nor Macron . .  nor Boris Johnson . . . nor any of their health ministers, most of whom have resigned. Which leads me to believe that the actual tipping point occurs sometime in the first week in March. That's when enough data accumulates that ALL of these leaders decide almost simultaneously to require drastic action. That's the almost unavoidable inference from the timeline. 

You and Terry write as if Trump is sailing blithely along while the rest of the world is screaming warnings and running for cover. But that's not what happened. Everyone was sailing blithely along and no one was running for cover.

This is my last post on the subject. I know we understand each other. Restating uncontroverted facts gets old.