Sean, the truth is that quite a few saw this comin
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This is an observation, not a criticism and is true around the world, under every sort of government.
Most thought it would be a pandemic influenza, but despite this being a coronavirus, the impact is not substantially different.
We got lucky that h1n1 was not as deadly as it first appeared and SARS was less transmissible.
We now have the combination of the impact and transmissibility of those two outbreaks.
Thankfully most survive and the world will go on. My concern is that the lessons taught by this experience will not be learned or will quickly be forgotten.