Competent first response to COVID19
The most competent first response to the corona-virus of any country would be to have tests and sanitizers in large quantities as well as “best practices”/instructions available to all heath care professionals on the virus. Preparedness was and is far more important then the appearance of having everything under control. Preparedness leads to the impression of having things under control without all the talk and therefore solves the issue of appearances. After healthcare professionals, tests and sanitizers (i.e. hand sanitizer, antiseptic, soap that kills COVID19) need to be available to the general public in massive quantities.
An absurd response would be to penalize a health professional who discovered the virus in order to downplay the threat. Li Wenliang was reprimanded on Jan 3rd for attempting to alert others to the new infection while working in Wuhan, China. He would later die of the Coronavirus himself along with hundreds of others. The discovery of the virus seemed to have come from a wet market which the Chinese government would eventually close down for “renovations”.
While I applaud the Gates foundation for getting in on the action (link below), and helping to create a vital component to a good strategy, it seems like this should have been done earlier.