Letting local leaders take the lead on public safety decisions works most of the time. Most disasters tend to have localized impacts.
This is affecting us nationwide. Our response should be led more at the federal level than by governors.
It's like if Governor Cooper had decided not to close schools across NC last week, but decided instead to let the local school systems make that decision, how would that look like? Do we praise him for leadership and assume local leaders are following his advice, or would we think he's timid and a step behind on what should have been done? If I recall, he got a little bit of heat on here for waiting until the largest systems make the call before he pulled the trigger.
Most of the time, letting school systems make the call to close schools works because it's due to weather, and storms affect different parts of the state differently. Most would believe this situation was different because of the unique circumstances and required a statewide decision. If so, why would this apply to the state level, but not the federal?