I don't think you've followed this argument to its logical conclusion. Taiwan started acting on the 31st of December because they didn't believe a word coming o

I don't think you've followed this argument to its logical conclusion. Taiwan started acting on the 31st of December because they didn't believe a word coming out the Chinese government's mouth. They haven't been hit like a sledgehammer even though they usually have huge flows of Chinese people travelling because they promptly rounded up and quarantined travellers from the affected regions and their close contacts back when China was falsely claiming it was a small outbreak with no evidence of person-to-person transmission, and then locked down travel entirely over the objections of China and the WHO which insisted doing so was racist and counterproductive. Any delays by other 1st world countries after 31st Dec are therefore largely their own fault for believing a word coming from of a totalitarian dictatorship with a long history of cover-ups and their parrots over at the WHO.