The last 100 yrs of public health has been geared towards the singular goal of not having politicians cobble together a pandemic response after it was already too late to contain. That makes the events of the last 30 days particularly tragic, since that's basically what happened.

The CDC *just* suspended cruise sailings. It may not be the most helpful organization in times of crisis.

Recall that in BC it was civic politicians from Vancouver to Langford who were pleading for closures at a time when relevant health authorities were still assuring people that "the risk was low."

In an era without internet, this would have killed way more people. Some of the communities most successful at weathering this pandemic did so because they were able to independently find the information indicating that what they were being told was wrong.