So we could have been warned a few weeks earlier and we could have responded appropriately
Without going to much into the politics of it - especially because kinda all parties are to blame for their early response... of all governments in the world! I mean, just check what Conte and Fontana were doing in Italy, or De Blasio in NYC etc - the truth is that there is no way to have an appropriate early response.
I do believe that we wasted a good week or two for the production of masks and respirators (and that's both at Federal and State level), and the depletion of the stockpile during the Obama's administration didn't certainly help. However, how the heck do you respond to something like this? Seriously, what do you do, especially considering that this thing has been around the globe since December (thanks China for lying)? Until the problem actually happens, and until it's visible, there is no single democracy that can do much. Trump declared the health emergency back in January - this is prior to all the mess in Europe, and that was already a hot topic because of the travel restrictions.
People have to realize that no democratic government can't take strong actions, such as limiting the movement and rights of healthy and innocent people, based on statistical projections. Not only it's illegal, but it's incredibly dangerous.
I don't think this is the time to do recriminations. No one is perfect, and whoever is in power (Congress, Executive, in the US or otherwise) is bound to make huge mistakes. This thing is a true beast, and it hit everyone, everywhere by surprise.
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In case you hadn't noticed, EVERY government on the face of the Earth - aside from a very few - failed to control a pandemic.
That's because it's virtually impossible to do with a beast like that, especially with China's lies.