Assigning blame to anyone/anything besides the CCP is foolish at best. They knew what they had and they unleashed it.
Throughout most of March we were told to not wear masks. Our highest profile leaders were telling us to go about our business. Take cruises. Fly anywhere (but China). Then before you could say California three times, we were mostly all on lockdown.
This thing got bad for us, and it got bad fast.
One thing I do wish happened was not only closing to China, but closing the borders to all travel, no matter where to or where from. It would have caused extreme backlash at first, but lives would have been saved. I'm not sure anyone in this country would have had the stones to do it. Seriously.