The real takeaway from this is just how unprepared we as a nation and state was. If this was SARS with a 15% mortality rate, or worse MERS with a 35% mortality rate, this would be a far more devastating situation. Both of those are a coronavirus just like this one. And who knows, there is still the possibility this could mutate and become more deadly.
Our inability to rapidly test and contain this put every American at risk. Americans will still pay the price with their lives but this could have been a massive national tragedy on a far greater scale.
The bottom line is that we will *NEVER* be able to contain something like this. Never. Not and remain the USA. It simply isn't possible. Travel and immigration are part and parcel of this country. There are hundreds if not thousands of international flights into and out of the US every day. So unless you are calling for a mandatory quarantine of everyone entering the country every day, (and thanks to our porous borders not even this would help) I don't see how this sort of thing can be prevented. The only thing we can do is devote more efforts to R&D and treatment. This is a cycle...its been going on since creation. We're not going to stop it now.