>Consider that many governments with professional public health departments, including those of the richest countries in the world, downplayed the unfolding disaster, completely blew it on containment as a result

Governments are ultimately run on a day to day basis by politicians. Proactive measures to prevent a crisis are a much tougher action to justify, especially if they negatively affect people in a way more direct than just spending their tax dollars, than reacting to a crisis. If anything I think this crisis should teach us something about how governments make choices.