IMO, 100s of thousands died unnecessarily (measured by assuming that we could really have been near the top of the world in deaths per capita), because I do believe we are capable of being “great”, including in terms of responding to a crisis like this one, and we weren’t. We were about as incompetent as any country on earth. Whenever the next time comes, we should aspire to be “great”.

Now that it’s about vaccine deployment, hopefully, we have seen the worst - fingers crossed we don’t get a variant that defeats the vaccines (which could bring about the “next time”). Which continues to be a risk with vax rates so low in much of the world, and still not high enough in some parts of the US.