Of course. I don't know how France handled this, but in the U.S. there was complete denial. Anyone could see the epidemic coming. I remember ordering extra supplies, including rubbing alcohol for steralizing, in mid January. But there was no organized, intelligent approach to the contagion by government or health officials.

Better than the US for sure. But many decisions look random (and are actually random), even inconsistent. My impression is that the government is just not capable to say that sometimes, they don't know everything. As you said, we do not know much today, and I don't see why this would be a wrong thing to claim for a government member. They also have the tendency to use science for political matters, which is a bad practice. But that is another debate.

At least, everything is back into control for a couple of weeks thanks to the imposed confinement. My worry is that now, the confinement phase is over and many people just think the virus is gone. Which is wrong and this is how a second wave may appear: crazy behaviours in those hard times. My predictions is a second wave by the end of the month. This is also what many at the hospitals expect :(