It's certainly effective propoganda to calm the Populus, from the government to the population and the population to itself. Hopefully leaders are sorting out more drastic measures in the meantime.
My attending went on the news to say that flattening the curve is our best bet at the moment. He's also considered to be one of the top physicians in the region. Y'all can sit here in a bubble, but the medical community has no hallucination that containment should have been done months ago and now it's past that.