Scott Sumner asks whether Europe and America are bungling the Coronavirus outbreak:

Unlike the Chinese, we had several months to plan and then launch an all out effort to address the problem with very aggressive testing of the population to spot outbreaks. And yet both the US and Italian governments seemed unprepared for the outbreak when it finally occurred. [...] If Europe and the US fall into recession we should not blame China. Indeed, many analysts expect the Chinese economy to be almost back to normal by mid-April. Instead, we need to look in the mirror.

Looking at the numbers seems to confirm this. China has reduced its R0 drastically and S.Korea has made an immense effort in testing 140.000 people, and their increase in deaths and news cases has slowed more than Italy's.

Meanwhile the US mess up their testing and the Rest of Europe seems to be slow as well. Authorities still have the main message that all is under control and hesitate to employ drastic measures. At least in Germany and Sweden where I follow the news.