Has any country botched its response to the pandemic as much as the US has? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/nyregion/coronavirus-ny-social-distancing.html

It's just failures on top of failures on top of failures.

The government didn't take it seriously at first, so it spread throughout the country.

Rather than actually help people stay afloat financially, the government sent out one time checks that wouldn't even cover a month's rent in most places.

And since people are expected to just... survive with no income, it increases the level of risk people are willing to take, pushing to open public-facing businesses sooner than they should.

And then those of us who've been keeping our distance see pictures of people out and about, having fun, which probably made some think, "If they're not following the rules, why should I?"

Then the protests started up, which I'm sure led some others to go, "Look at those huge crowds. And I'm not allowed to go outside?" And so they let their guard down.

And all the while, we have no actual leadership. Last night, the president lied, saying the virus was "fading."

So much of a successful response relied on us taking big collective action, but we weren't given the resources ($$$) to safely do so, nor did we have the leadership needed (thanks to President Tough Guy, who turned not wearing a mask into a political statement) to act.