I guess, but there were loads of things about this disease that made it stand out right from the start. The bad timing (before chinese new year), low lethality, high transmission rates, high asymptomatic rates, all made it pretty clear even to non-experts that this was going to be a really big deal.

Certainly, after the outbreak escaped China, the only thing I remember finding surprising about the pandemic was how badly the West handled it. A lot of people had exactly the same takeaway.