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SvennoJ on 10 May 2020
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Pemalite said:

What would be really awesome is for someone to build a timeline of how every major country responded with policies and measures with a proper time adjustment from the 1st confirmed case.

Because the USA is leading the world in deaths and cases... And that is one thing you don't want to be the leader in... It's a systemic government failure from top to bottom to recognize and proactively tackle the problem... And the world should take notes on this example of what not to do when handling a pandemic.

Has Trumps approval taken a beating with his appalling response? Or do people just not care?
Our Prime Ministers approval has skyrocketed after his extremely low approval of how he handled the bushfire crisis, proves he learned a lesson and might get my vote next election.

The first confirmed case keeps moving back though. The problem was, no or so little tests available that countries failed to notice the virus was already circulating. At first the first 2 cases were detected in Italy on Januari 31st from 2 Chinese travelers. Yet now we know that the first community transfer case was already ongoing on December 27th when a Frenchman visited the hospital for coughing up blood, chest pain and difficulty breathing.
https://nypost.com/2020/05/05/europes-first-coronavirus-case-was-in-december-scientists/
He was told it was “not normal flu” when he went to a hospital on Dec. 27 — but at the time the pandemic was completely unknown.

For Europe it's lock down for
Italy: March 9th
Spain: March 14th
France: March 17th
Germany: March 22nd
UK: March 24th
Although 'lock down' doesn't mean the same in each country.

It wasn't all at the same day either

https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-what-are-the-lockdown-measures-across-europe/a-52905137


The first covid19 death in the USA has been pushed back to Februari 6th, also a community transfer case. However the administration was still under the illusion that they were only looking for incoming travelers with covid19 symptoms.

According to (not so reliable) wikepedia the first case in Australia was discovered on Januari 25th, however Australia also didn't respond until March! Australian borders were closed to all non-residents on 20 March.[3] Social distancing rules were imposed on 21 March.

The first report of a COVID-19 case in the U.S. came on January 20, in a man who returned on January 15 from visiting family in Wuhan, China, to his home in Snohomish County, Washington. He sought medical attention on January 19.[113] The second report of a COVID-19 case U.S. came on January 24, in a woman who returned to Chicago, Illinois, on January 13 from visiting Wuhan.[3][4] The woman passed the virus to her husband, and he was confirmed to have the virus on January 30, in the first reported case of local transmission in the United States.[8]

March 13th National Emergency declared in the USA
March 16th Social distancing guidelines
March 18th the border with Canada was closed, the last one still open and social distancing measures were implemented not long after.
(Here's the very long of it https://www.justsecurity.org/69650/timeline-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-u-s-response/)


The date of symptom onset for the first case of COVID-19 reported in Canada became ill on January 15, 2020. Additional cases occurred gradually from January to late February. These early cases were among travelers returning to Canada from countries where outbreaks of COVID-19 were already occurring and their close contacts. The number of cases increased sharply in March as the virus began to spread from one person to another in Canadian communities.
https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/epidemiological-summary-covid-19-cases.html

In Ontario the lights came on on March 17th (declared state of emergency)
http://ofl.ca/covid-19-policy-timeline/
Then a whole bunch of measures following over the next weeks.


So when the first case was is uncertain, the first community transfer more uncertain, and even the first known case (to react to) is already hard to find now dates have been pushed back with retro active testing. Plus the measures are long lists of different policies gradually closing things down further and further.



There isn't all that much difference between a first case discovered at the time between Australia, Europe, North America, and the reactions following in March. Yet in a lot of places it was already spreading since December or even November while everyone was focusing on returning travelers from Januari through Februari.