To quote wiki: "Wuhan is considered the political, economic, financial, commercial, cultural, and educational center of Central China. It is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and expressways passing through the city and connecting to other major cities. Because of its key role in domestic transportation, Wuhan is sometimes referred to as "the Chicago of China" by foreign sources"
Wuhan is not some backwater, but perhaps the 6th most important city in the world's second largest (soon to be first largest) economy. A city of 11 million people - the biggest city in an area the size of France,Germany, UK combined and with weekly flights to dozens of international destinations.
But of course that vast majority of people outside of China have not heard of it. An epidemic in Wuhan - some far off random Chinese city was not cause for concern - despite the WHO stating on Jan 28th that "the risk on a global level is high" and "this could turn into a global health emergency".
Now imagine that this epidemic had begun not in Wuhan, but in the "American Wuhan" - Chicago, or Houston or Philadelphia, with 1500 Americans dead by mid February. Would we have still been going to rock concerts, matches at Twickenham etc a whole month later in March? There was massive complacency at work across the Western world.