> All of this focus on the point of origin is misplaced. We know that there will be new viruses. What matters is how we respond to them. In this case the US response was completely botched.

It’s worth talking about better versus worse covid response, but that’s missing the forest for the trees. Most of the G7 didn’t do that much better: from Germany to Italy, and including the US, they’re all in the 1,200 to 2,200 deaths per million people range. Countries like Australia that did a little better, down at 700, are still having to have military-enforced lockdowns 18 months into the pandemic.

Is it really possible that none of these advanced economies were adequately prepared? The next time this hits, are we really going to try this massively expensive lockdown approach again? That seems like madness to me.