This is kind of OT... but I find a lot of publications from one country about another to be mildly to grossly inaccurate. Sometimes it's just things getting filtered down, with a lot of the same memes passed around. Being too far from the source, people take what they can get and makes sense to them. Other times, it almost seems like things are pointed out about another country to distract from things happening in the country of the article's origin. "Look at how bad things are over there with this issue we are also facing! Be glad we're not like that!" I highly suspect the reality is just as bad, but in different ways, with different elements and factors in play. Countries are very different. People are the same everywhere.
I see this a lot in Europeans in their takes on what the average American thinks, or things happening in our country that just... well, they're kind of laughable to anyone who actually lives here. Everything is really reductionist... low bit-depth images, filtered further through the lens of how people in the country writing it already see things, and the problems they're facing in their own country. And I'm sure it's the same with things that get written from the US, about European countries. Big ol grain of salt when one country writes about another. Gotta wonder about where the information comes from, let alone the intent. Remember, they aren't even there. It's an approximation of whatever the situation is, at best. News struggles to report things accurately in their home countries badly enough without trying to see across the ocean.
I mean... over here that fundamental lack of FOV/resolution was considered a big problem. We knew stuff was happening, but nobody stateside knows what's actually going on in China. But man I can tell you the news sure did reach. So much stuff was going up and being tossed out HOURS later.
My personal opinion... pretty much nobody in the world is prepared for a potential outbreak, and everyone shambled around trying to figure out what to do, or if they even should. The way we operate isn't compatible with an impending cataclysmic pandemic. It shuts everything down. That's why there is a panic. Because if something DID happen, nobody would be ready and we would all be screwed. Even if we avoid it, avoiding it undermines everything else to the point where normal lives stop being feasible and things still wind up being in jeopardy.
People freak out about them because every so often, Flu pandemics actually have wiped a lot of people out. The spanish flu pandemic was one of the worst epidemics ever seen. Many millions are estimated to have died. There are a lot of theories on what really happened with it, but it nonetheless left a mark on humanity. Any time parallels can be drawn, it's going to get spooky. I don't think this is remotely the same, but I totally understand the fears.
