[Scooter_Stepford]

China allowing the video of all the excavators deployed to build an emergency hospital on Jan 23, was ALL I needed to see to know this was a serious threat to the world.

Unfortunately, the heads of state in the rest of the world weren't as smart as you. That might be due to their loss function being much different than yours. If you are wrong, the worst that happens is that you maybe get teased about it. If a head of state is wrong, the consequences to him personally and his nation in general can be catastrophic. That is why most heads of state make decisions much more slowly than you do, and require much more consensus before they act. While it is true that this may cause them to act too slowly, it is almost always what will happen.
Also, unlike you, they actually have to do something. They have to convince their nation to follow them, while you can just be right all by yourself. It they recognize the problem but adopt a bad plan, they still get crushed, as does the nation. So it isn't apples to apples.

This is yet another great post by you, Goose.  I’ve really appreciated your perspective throughout this.

A question I’ve had for a long time is why was Dr. Fauci so nonchalant about the threat for so long?  He was giving interviews into February where he almost completely discounted the risk to the US.  If there was so much evidence—and he presumably had access and interest in all of it—why did he do that?

(I’m not blaming Dr. Fauci, but I want to understand.)

[Scooter_Stepford]

China allowing the video of all the excavators deployed to build an emergency hospital on Jan 23, was ALL I needed to see to know this was a serious threat to the world.

Unfortunately, the heads of state in the rest of the world weren't as smart as you. That might be due to their loss function being much different than yours. If you are wrong, the worst that happens is that you maybe get teased about it. If a head of state is wrong, the consequences to him personally and his nation in general can be catastrophic. That is why most heads of state make decisions much more slowly than you do, and require much more consensus before they act. While it is true that this may cause them to act too slowly, it is almost always what will happen.
Also, unlike you, they actually have to do something. They have to convince their nation to follow them, while you can just be right all by yourself. It they recognize the problem but adopt a bad plan, they still get crushed, as does the nation. So it isn't apples to apples.

This is yet another great post by you, Goose.  I’ve really appreciated your perspective throughout this.

A question I’ve had for a long time is why was Dr. Fauci so nonchalant about the threat for so long?  He was giving interviews into February where he almost completely discounted the risk to the US.  If there was so much evidence—and he presumably had access and interest in all of it—why did he do that?

(I’m not blaming Dr. Fauci, but I want to understand.)