This makes a lot of sense. 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

This makes a lot of sense. 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.