[Genuine Realist]

I'm very slow to use themes of incompetence and bungling. In my experience, the easiest problems to solve are someone else's. What's for sure is that the CDC was caught flatfooted by a phenomenon well beyond anything it had prepared for. Pearl Harbor analogies are appropriate.

I don't think the Pearl Harbor analogy is apt. Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack. This is more like our Chernobyl: denied, downplayed, and then mismanaged.

There were actually plenty of hints, if not warnings, about Japanese intentions, that a misguided Congressional committee could have investigated.

However, the speed of this thing also makes it somewhat similar. In fact, given the degree of social dislocation required for an adequate response, this thing is even more drastic in terms of suddenness than the Pearl Harbor event.

[Genuine Realist]

I'm very slow to use themes of incompetence and bungling. In my experience, the easiest problems to solve are someone else's. What's for sure is that the CDC was caught flatfooted by a phenomenon well beyond anything it had prepared for. Pearl Harbor analogies are appropriate.

I don't think the Pearl Harbor analogy is apt. Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack. This is more like our Chernobyl: denied, downplayed, and then mismanaged.

There were actually plenty of hints, if not warnings, about Japanese intentions, that a misguided Congressional committee could have investigated.

However, the speed of this thing also makes it somewhat similar. In fact, given the degree of social dislocation required for an adequate response, this thing is even more drastic in terms of suddenness than the Pearl Harbor event.