U.S. Exceptionalism Created Deadly COVID-19 Failures

Volunteers with the COVID-19 Memorial Project install 20,000 U.S. flags on the National Mall in Washington on Sept. 20, as the United States passes 200,000 lives lost to the pandemic. Win McNamee/Getty Images

The U.S. COVID-19 response has been, to state the obvious, shockingly incompetent and among the worst in the world. With more than 530,000 COVID-19 deaths, the United States has accounted for 20 percent of recorded global mortality with just 4 percent of the global population. How did the country ranked number one in outbreak preparedness by the Global Health Security Index fail so spectacularly?

Tremendous blame must rest with former President Donald Trump and his administration’s complete lack of regard for human life, demonstrated by touting fake cures, silencing public health experts, interfering in fact-based public health guidance, and demanding the economy reopen while COVID-19 raged out of control, to name a few.