arguing, anyway), but it doesn't explain why the US mostly waited until mid-March to order N95 masks, ventilators, etc. for the national stockpile, after watching Italy institute regional lockdowns starting February 21st.

It doesn't explain Trump still saying on March 10th "It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away" after Italy had already locked down the entire country.

No one is saying we should have locked down the country in January.  But there are *many* steps the administration should have taken in February and early March to scenario plan for different situations and take actions based on those plans, instead of wishing the virus would miraculously disappear by April.

And it's NOT hindsight.  We could see what was happening in other parts of the world.  South Korea was doing extensive testing and contact tracing and had it more under control.  We weren't doing that, which put us on a similar trajectory as Italy, which didn't act soon enough.  Experts were sounding the alarm, and the information outside of China was easily observable to anyone paying attention.

Yes, China lying about the problem initially and being slow to react made things exponentially worse for the world.  But by that exact same logic, the US government being slow to react and lying about things for a month before taking action also made things exponentially worse for the US.