[Goose]

The fire analogy is not great.  No fires as large as those in Australia have ever been suppressed by humans.  The best you can do sometimes is save a few individual houses or structures.  I doubt it was possible for the Australians to do much more than they did.

Well, the Australian public most certainly does not agree with you. The fires were a challenge, but the main reason they got as large as they did is that the initial suppression was in many cases inadequate. The small local fire departments were overwhelmed and couldn't contain the fires away from populated areas. There was no backup force of any kind available from the states or the Commonwealth. The public cried "do something", but there was no force available to do so. Eventually they tried the Army, but since it hadn't been trained or prepared, it didn't do much.

Meanwhile, with the virus, we have compelling examples from several countries (well documented above in this thread) that it was possible to suppress the virus through early action.

And early action is possible only if you are prepared. If you aren't, there isn't much you can do. I also continue to point out that lots of that "early action" took place not in response to top-level executive decision but rather inside the public health services who were just doing their job. Proportionally, the US has a much smaller "on the ground" public health effort than for instance Australia or Korea. That really matters when you are at the start of an epidemic and need to contain it before it gets away from you. Having lots of eyes on the problem all across the country also reduces the probability that some disease can sneak by you and start community spread without the nation even being aware of it.

[Goose]

The fire analogy is not great.  No fires as large as those in Australia have ever been suppressed by humans.  The best you can do sometimes is save a few individual houses or structures.  I doubt it was possible for the Australians to do much more than they did.

Well, the Australian public most certainly does not agree with you. The fires were a challenge, but the main reason they got as large as they did is that the initial suppression was in many cases inadequate. The small local fire departments were overwhelmed and couldn't contain the fires away from populated areas. There was no backup force of any kind available from the states or the Commonwealth. The public cried "do something", but there was no force available to do so. Eventually they tried the Army, but since it hadn't been trained or prepared, it didn't do much.

Meanwhile, with the virus, we have compelling examples from several countries (well documented above in this thread) that it was possible to suppress the virus through early action.

And early action is possible only if you are prepared. If you aren't, there isn't much you can do. I also continue to point out that lots of that "early action" took place not in response to top-level executive decision but rather inside the public health services who were just doing their job. Proportionally, the US has a much smaller "on the ground" public health effort than for instance Australia or Korea. That really matters when you are at the start of an epidemic and need to contain it before it gets away from you. Having lots of eyes on the problem all across the country also reduces the probability that some disease can sneak by you and start community spread without the nation even being aware of it.