I think you are forgetting the actual timeline of how fast this happened. I went to a birthday party on the 24th of Feb here in Argentina and I was talking about how I was worried about the coronavirus and the medical and economic problems that were to come. Everyone looked at me like I was a crazy conspiracy theory nut case. And really it was logical how they thought on that date. On Feb 20, there were only 4 coronavirus cases in Italy, and on Feb 24 there were only 3 cases in Spain. At that time, it looked like it was a strange outbreak that had happened in the interior of China, that had not even caused a quarantine in Beijing or Shanghai.
Then things started moving at lightning speed. On March 3, Argentina got it's first coronavirus case. March 5, Aerolineas Argentinas ordered the cancelation of all flights to Italy. March 11, it was announced a quarantine of 14 days for anyone coming from certain countries, and that it was considering stopping all flights from Italy. March 12, government announced the suspension of all flights from Europe, US, China and Japan. March 19, national quarantine announced.
This happened at lightning speed. Exponential growth takes us all by surprise. Someone could easily have traveled at the end of February or beginning of March and would have been acting reasonably taking that trip. Now in April sitting comfortably in our armchairs watching Netflix we can criticize Argentines that have gotten stranded abroad, some in dire situations, as irresponsible travelers only concerned about themselves, and that they "deserve worse than criticism". But it's rewriting history. That's not what happened to the vast majority of people stranded abroad.
