South Korea had experience dealing with MERS, so they were far smarter about this, and had tracking systems and stricter anti-infection hospital protocols in place already. We didn’t, but the main bungle was lack of testing for bureaucratic and competency reasons. And the biggest idiocy was assuming there was no spread because there were no positives yet… and telling the masses that all is okay and to go about their business.
That message for too long was from Trump down to de Blasio.
The second major bungle was lack of masks and therefore wrong advice to the masses to not wear them. I’d like to see Trump and his aides give a press conference wearing one, to show Americans that this is the temporary new normal.
(Incidentally, women in Heimish communities are more reluctant to wear masks and gloves while grocery shopping, as esthetics are more important to them. So lehavdil just like men are taught to Daven with minyan and many have trouble letting go, women are conditioned to always make sure they look good and are having trouble with this. Just my two cents, but we need a multi-pronged strategy in our own neighborhoods to stop the spread.)