The truth is that there is no-one at any level who has a complete knowledge base of what to do, and in fact much of our current awareness sadly comes from observed and corrected mistakes of the distant and not-so-distant past. Time really is of the essence here in making a positive impact!
There is a massive difference between living in fear due to scaremongering and a lack of knowledge versus taking precautions based around the mechanics and mathematics of disease transmission.