[2006alum]

The reality seems to me that the CCP misinformed, disinformed, and obfuscated its actual experience with the virus throughout the months of January and February. Skeptics such as Tom Cotton were pummeled as conspiratists in the MSM. I"m going to link an article by Christine Rosen that summarizes the extent of CCP apologetics. One factoid stands out - the WHO was congratulating the CCP for halting the spread of the virus, when by that date it was active in 18 different nations. 

The CCP locked down Wuhan and much of Hubei on Jan. 22 - 60 million people in total - the largest lockdown in peace times in modern history. If that wasn't a warning shot of how bad this was, I don't know what could have been. Apparently enough people in NYC noticed, because by Jan. 26, Walgreens were posting signs on their doors notifying that they were out of surgical masks. They were already out of stock on Amazon by Jan. 28. When I flew from NYC to SF on Feb. 4 at least 1/3 of the flight was wearing masks. There were plenty of people concerned about this by at least early February. 

And as folks previously noted, the White House got notices in January from many sources, including the President's own Trade Advisor, Peter Navarro, as to how bad this could be: 

A top White House adviser starkly warned Trump administration officials in late January that the coronavirus crisis could cost the United States trillions of dollars and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death.
The warning, written in a memo by Peter Navarro, President Trump’s trade adviser, is the highest-level alert known to have circulated inside the West Wing as the administration was taking its first substantive steps to confront a crisis that had already consumed China’s leaders and would go on to upend life in Europe and the United States.
“The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil,” Mr. Navarro’s memo said. “This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.”
Dated Jan. 29, it came during a period when Mr. Trump was playing down the risks to the United States, and he would later go on to say that no one could have predicted such a devastating outcome.

And clearly the President must have known how serious this was given that he issued a (flaw) travel ban from China on January 31. If he thought it was so bad he needed to ban "all" travel from China, presumably high-level U.S. leadership was aware of the potential for a pandemic.

[2006alum]

The reality seems to me that the CCP misinformed, disinformed, and obfuscated its actual experience with the virus throughout the months of January and February. Skeptics such as Tom Cotton were pummeled as conspiratists in the MSM. I"m going to link an article by Christine Rosen that summarizes the extent of CCP apologetics. One factoid stands out - the WHO was congratulating the CCP for halting the spread of the virus, when by that date it was active in 18 different nations. 

The CCP locked down Wuhan and much of Hubei on Jan. 22 - 60 million people in total - the largest lockdown in peace times in modern history. If that wasn't a warning shot of how bad this was, I don't know what could have been. Apparently enough people in NYC noticed, because by Jan. 26, Walgreens were posting signs on their doors notifying that they were out of surgical masks. They were already out of stock on Amazon by Jan. 28. When I flew from NYC to SF on Feb. 4 at least 1/3 of the flight was wearing masks. There were plenty of people concerned about this by at least early February. 

And as folks previously noted, the White House got notices in January from many sources, including the President's own Trade Advisor, Peter Navarro, as to how bad this could be: 

A top White House adviser starkly warned Trump administration officials in late January that the coronavirus crisis could cost the United States trillions of dollars and put millions of Americans at risk of illness or death.
The warning, written in a memo by Peter Navarro, President Trump’s trade adviser, is the highest-level alert known to have circulated inside the West Wing as the administration was taking its first substantive steps to confront a crisis that had already consumed China’s leaders and would go on to upend life in Europe and the United States.
“The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil,” Mr. Navarro’s memo said. “This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.”
Dated Jan. 29, it came during a period when Mr. Trump was playing down the risks to the United States, and he would later go on to say that no one could have predicted such a devastating outcome.

And clearly the President must have known how serious this was given that he issued a (flaw) travel ban from China on January 31. If he thought it was so bad he needed to ban "all" travel from China, presumably high-level U.S. leadership was aware of the potential for a pandemic.