On one level, casting blame within the US for the Kung Flu is silly, since the disease is a somewhat unprecedented freakshow that came out of Communist China. But on the other hand…

On January 31, there was this:

Don’t Listen To Sen. Tom Cotton About Coronavirus

Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) has been on an absolute tear about coronavirus, calling for all Americans in China to “get out now,” demanding the U.S. implement an extensive travel ban targeting China proposing a “Manhattan Project-level effort to create a vaccine” ― a reference to the undertaking that produced the atomic bomb during World War II.   

Huh. Imagine if, instead of calling Cotton a fearmonger, a nut and a bigot, the HuffPo and other outlets had said “maybe we should listen to this guy.” On the same day that HuffPo mocked the idea that the virus was worth worrying about, Trump issued his travel ban on people coming from China, thus preemptively striking at those who, a couple months later, would accuse him of belated interest in the pandemic.