I don't think of preparedness as in have huge stockpiles of everything you might need in all crises is the answer. You could never make that happen. It's preparedness as in having competent leaders who are good at interpreting data. Seems like very, very few bureaucrats like that exist. I think I saw Paul Graham on Twitter a couple of days ago responding to someone who was ranting about how they can't understand the moves made and not made by bureaucrats. PG's reply was it's because they are a lot dumber then you think they are.