Not Learning From Asia

The British Government is quite rightly getting it in the ear for being slow off the mark but if, as Boris warned, we are just at the start of the Coronavirus rollercoaster, it seems China and South Korea especially are coming out the other end so what can we learn from the Asians that we can do to make our ride a bit less bumpy.
Firstly the World was warned by China in late December of a new SARS like virus that was coming our way but while China, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong were all screening at their borders within days, we in the West were very slow off the mark so that opportunity has now passed and it's here and devastating society.
The World Health Organisation said that the key was to 'test, test, test' and South Korea quickly developed a test for the virus and tested hundred of thousands of its citizens at a rate of 20,000 daily meanwhile in the UK we only tested those patients in hospital with flu like symptoms so that is another opportunity burnt through.
Social distancing is considered one of the best ways of containing an outbreak and in China the shutters came down remarkable quickly especially in Wuhan, where it all started but Europe went for a strategy of introducing it in small steps until finally reaching the national lockdown state that China reached for straight away and only after the infection and death rate got eye-wateringly uncomfortable.
We don't know how long it will last or just how bad it will get but it appears Europe just didn't pay enough attention to what was happening in Asia and react to the threat quick enough.