The answer was in the President's news conference. They said that their suggested restrictions will seem like they are overreacting. They are trying to keep 13 from becoming 1300 and no deaths becoming a hundred deaths. Further, if they are successful, people will also say they overreacted because the numbers won't get that bad.
China went from 278 cases to 75,000+ cases in ONE MONTH (Jan 21 - Feb 21). 6 deaths to 2239 deaths. At the start of that period they probably didn't feel too threatened either.
To be honest, I think some of the projections are hype but actual counts of sick and dead are real enough and something to take very seriously.
To deal with this, the whole world is taking a big economic hit but I don't know how else we can fight it. The only real weapon we have is to minimize its spread.
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