I’m sure it’s difficult, if not nearly impossible, to determine when to issue such recommendations so that people take the advice seriously. As it is, even now, people in general aren’t taking this seriously at all from what I’m seeing in the community... and I live in San Antonio where a large number of evacuees were quarantined for weeks.
I work in health care with the elderly. Many still say things like “it’s just a bad flu”, “the flu kills a lot more”, “there’s no point in trying to avoid getting it”, and so on. I know several older adults (50-75+) who left on cruises as recently as yesterday. I know people who think it’s a fantastic time to plan a trip to France, Italy, Germany, etc “because tickets are super cheap!!”
Americans in general won’t stand for the drastic measures implemented in China to squash the spread of this virus, so we cannot realistically expect to see a flattening of our curve like what has been reported in China.
The general public doesn’t seem to understand, or want to understand, how crucial it is to slow the spread of this virus so as not to overwhelm our healthcare system.
It also baffles me when I see frustration over “we want answers!!” to things like “what is the incubation period” and “how long does it live outside the body” and “how is it transmitted”. It’s like it’s beyond comprehension that WE DON’T KNOW FOR SURE. There doesn’t have to be some giant conspiracy or complete lack of leadership or anything like that... we just don’t know the answers to a lot of these questions. It is maddeningly frustrating for scientists and doctors not to be able to give definitive answers, but it’s hugely unrealistic to expect definitive answers about a strain of this virus never seen in humans prior to December.