RE, the President was accurately reflecting what was known at the time. He was on top of the situation since January, while his critics were completely ignoring it. He set his task force into place and announced it at the State of the Union speech, while Pelosi threw a tantrum and claimed the whole speech was garbage and needed to be ripped up. Then the Democrats, while still dismissing it and encouraging people to mingle and to go to densely concentrated places, simultaneously contradicted themselves by grossly exaggerating the danger (compared to what was then known) so they could accuse the President of neglecting it. Meanwhile he was taking the most measured and calm approach that the information available warranted.
One problem was that the state of information early on was bad, because the Chinese deliberately hid what they knew, and lied to the world, via their puppet the WHO. So there was no way for anyone outside China to know what was really going on.