The media would've kept their 'it's just the flu' spiel up longer as they wouldn't necessarily have wanted to fight the White House (except for maybe the Fox News a few other outlets), which would've made a reverse in course harder.
The Obama White House was ill prepared for something like this in 2016 when all eyes were on the Middle East and the transition to a new administration.
It would've hit China and probably the war zones in Syria/Iraq first through Russia.
Air traffic between the US/EU/China would've not been halted as quickly, allowing it to spread further much faster including to the millions of refugees stuck in camps or migration centers.
The only way this has a better outcome is if China had decided to come clean and warned everybody, which wouldn't have happened.
Instead Wolf Blitzer would've been interviewing 'renowned businessman' Donald Trump about the need for a bailout for hotels and airlines because people are afraid to travel plus what a mess it was in New York.
Other countries would've been in a worse position too, Greece dealing with the refugee crisis, France with President Hollande and the Tories caught completely off guard in the middle of their leadership contest.
Most nations would've been paralyzed and few leaders would have had the political capital to do a lockdown.
The Obama White House LITERALLY HAD A PANDEMIC PLAYBOOK to handle exactly this situation in 2016 you nard
They would've had the same setbacks of China not telling everyone there was a deadly virus in the first place or lying about how human to human transmission wasn't possible.
There would've also been the same worldwide shortages of PPE's and other materials needed to handle such an outbreak.
Many countries that had a playbook for events like this like the UK and The Netherlands completely botched their response anyway.
While countries with little to no resources to handle this situation like Taiwan did a fantastic job (mostly because they didn't trust China).
A playbook wouldn't have guaranteed a different outcome. Fauci is pretty much the most renowned expert in this field of viral outbreaks and pretty much all his recommendations have been followed.
We're seeing the same type of response on a global level just different levels of 'lockdown' depending on specific conditions in the country.
How would the Obama administration for example have been more effective in containing the outbreak in New York? What could they have done differently?
Do you think Obama would've banned all travel from and to China when the virus started in Wuhan? Doing the opposite of the other G7 members?
The Obama White House would've been completely overwhelmed by this, just like the world is now. Perhaps even more so considering the fact that many other events were happening at the same time.
