NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE B y January 26, the world had 2,014 reported cases of the coronavirus, with the vast majority in China but 29 in ten other countries, including two in the United States. An unknowable but significant number of asymptomatic carriers were traveling around the world, unwittingly spreading it further. The opportunity to contain the virus in Wuhan or within China had long since passed, hindered by the Chinese government’s false public statements that human-to-human transmission wasn’t occurring.

Two days earlier, New York City officials laid out their preparedness plans, accurately assessing that the city’s international travel hub and large population made the coronavirus’s arrival …