The first US cases were in January but no one was paying attention. China tried to lock down an entire city in January, and no one cared. I emailed my manager about a PPE shortage that was likely about to come. People would jokingly cough, "uh oh got the china flu." They weren't joking like that two months later.
I thought I was going crazy following the story. This is how I learned "expert" means fuck all, among many other lessons.