[magnus]

While it looks like California and Washington are doing a bit better than average, New York is obviously a nightmare and Louisiana (also with a Democratic governor) looks to be the next hotspot. 

Please don't jinx CA and WA. =/  I think WA was artificially thrust into the lead due to the outbreak landing spot (nursing home).  If you minimize that contribution and adjust the start date, WA is moving up just like any other state.  CA...I worry what next week will look like.

But the bottom line is that while I think we could have been much better prepared, I doubt this could have been prevented entirely.  There is just too much global travel and coronavirus spreads much to easily undetected to have truly allowed us to prevent the pandemic entirely.

Agreed...in order to have really shut this down, given the average American's lack of social distance and facemasking, we'd have to have acted from the start as if this virus were contagious pre-symptoms.  Which would have required a much higher level of action to counter...a level of action that I can't imagine any American government would be able to justify undergoing without proof.

[magnus]

While it looks like California and Washington are doing a bit better than average, New York is obviously a nightmare and Louisiana (also with a Democratic governor) looks to be the next hotspot. 

Please don't jinx CA and WA. =/  I think WA was artificially thrust into the lead due to the outbreak landing spot (nursing home).  If you minimize that contribution and adjust the start date, WA is moving up just like any other state.  CA...I worry what next week will look like.

But the bottom line is that while I think we could have been much better prepared, I doubt this could have been prevented entirely.  There is just too much global travel and coronavirus spreads much to easily undetected to have truly allowed us to prevent the pandemic entirely.

Agreed...in order to have really shut this down, given the average American's lack of social distance and facemasking, we'd have to have acted from the start as if this virus were contagious pre-symptoms.  Which would have required a much higher level of action to counter...a level of action that I can't imagine any American government would be able to justify undergoing without proof.