It was preventable (in hindsight). It isn't even a virus, it's a bacteria that traveled on fleas on rats on ships. As people back then were not so stoked up on hygene, isolating Venice should have been the best way to go. But elite thought that economy outweighs the peasantry. It was a poor man's disease, until kingdoms crumbled under the Black Death. One third of Europe's population died. Do we want that to happen again? So what if WHO overreacts (like swine flu)?

The worst thing that can happen is spending too much budget that would otherwise be redirected to less important tasks due to final cuts at the end of the fiscal year. The normal thing that happens is WHAT THE FUCK, WE ARE IN A MIDST OF A PANDEMIC, KILL IT AND WE'LL BE OKAY! Or some people may petition their guvernors that it's all a hoax. The gov will be sad to redirect all those funds from healthcare to another yacht.