Particularly the point about "Why build hospitals?" Because in strongly centralized, command political systems, grand projects are one of the few things done well. And so crisis management becomes "What can we build, to show we're taking it seriously?"
Even outside of centralised, command political systems many of the responses seem to be in the vein of "what can we do to show we're taking it seriously?" Many actions such as the travel restrictions have gone directly against public health advice, but are easy to implement and politically very successful.
Get your head out of the sand. The sooner people take this for the threat that it is and start stockpiling basic supplies, the less likely it will be that everyone runs to the store simultaneously.
1.https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/01/coronavirus-more-of-china-ex...
