Why was the world not prepared for Covid-19?

 (My answer on Quora)

here are a number of reasons for this.

1. The virus is unusual in that it hits a ‘sweet spot’. Its fatality rate sits somewhere around 0.5–0.7% (significantly higher than the seasonal flu but nowhere near as deadly as the earlier SARS outbreak for the infected) but it is very transmittable. It lingers and spreads.
2. A significant proportion of those infected present little or no symptoms (asymptomatic) and therefore are unlikely to report for testing.
3. There were some initial problems with several PCR antigen tests supplying false positives/negatives. This improved over time.
4. The CCP downplayed the extent of the outbreak in Wuhan and also deliberately went after whistleblowers who ordinarily would have provided early warning notice of the extent and profile of the virus. There also seems to be emerging evidence of local cover-up at Wuhan regarding crisis management.
5. To this day we are unaware of the origin of the virus. Theories abound. If the virus is indeed the product of gain-of-function research then this could explain why it has been so lethal in terms of absolute death numbers compared to other coronaviruses of recent vintage. The jury is still out on this one.
6. Travel from China to other countries continued for too long a period. This seeded the virus in Northern Italy. Travel from European hotspots to North America (which seeded New York) was shutdown late. All too often calls for shutdowns turned into an excuse for bitter political name calling.
7. Most of the world was heavily reliant on advice from the WHO that from the get go seemed to be riddled with political interference that diminished its credibility.
8. The demographic fatality of the virus is unusual in that its impact on young children who are usually a vulnerable group is minimal. This required a radical rethink from previous methodologies of maintenance.
9. There was an over reliance on mathematical models, guided by inputs that carry a high degree of error, for the Pandemic management. A great deal of these were found wanting.
10. Health officials often presented mixed messages that changed frequently. In several cases, those in the know were less than honest with the public. Initially we (in the West) were told that masking is ineffective. Then we were told that it is necessary. When questioned on this change of philosophy the answer often given by health officials is that they did not wish to exhaust supplies for front line workers. If that was indeed the case then why wasn’t this made very clear from the beginning? Why overlay this with the ineffective line? All it does is create more public skepticism.
11. Following on with 10…..Masking has long been used for disease management in Asia. Why did it seem that there was so little so little research done on the efficacy of masking in reducing the transmission of airborne viruses carried by droplets? Were we in a wait and see mode until the pandemic hit? If so then this represents a colossal failure by our collective health organizations.
12. Media Generated Panic. It didn’t help that 2020 was an election year in the United States and in these years concerns for the ballot box take precedent over everything else. Panic is a powerful tool to influence public opinion all too often at the expense of a more logical approach to risk mitigation. This had the net effect of further polarizing people for no useful health benefit.
13. Poor leadership. There are numerous examples of this across the globe but for me one of the worst was the decision by several US governors to send the infected elderly back to the care facilities. An action that resulted in thousands of additional deaths that could have been avoided.
14. Pandemics are like wars and just like wars the generals/doctors often use the methodologies of old to fight the new. We saw this in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic with the ventilator obsession. In many cases this approach did more harm than good with high rates of mortality associated with such treatment.
15. Cultural and regional concerns. These play a key role in the grassroots management of a pandemic. Outcomes vary. What works for one culture may not work for another.