For the most part, America under Donald Trump’s leadership has offered an object lesson in how not to handle a pandemic. Delay and denial deprived us of any chance of containing the coronavirus’s early spread; impatience and further denial led to a huge second wave of infections.

As I pointed out in a previous column, a great majority of U.S. Covid-19 deaths have taken place since April 17, the day Trump tweeted out his support for demonstrators demanding that states end restrictions on high-risk activities.

And in America, uniquely among advanced nations, common-sense precautions like wearing face coverings and avoiding large indoor gatherings have become battlefields in the culture war.

Yet in one area — economic policy — America did a surprisingly good job, containing the hardship and collateral damage from the pandemic much more effectively than …continued .
[Source: New York Times]