Explaining the Two Sides in the Coronavirus Controversy

You can think of the coronavirus crisis as a drill.

One faction thinks of it as a drill for bubonic plague, coronal mass ejection, or an asteroid strike.

The other faction thinks of it as a drill for a possible future international conflict in which the Enemy releases a moderately-bad virus to interfere with the economy of any nation that's reluctant to sacrifice its citizens. It's similar to the reaction to Kavanaugh's accusers: “If we react the wrong way, we'll see more of this in the future.”