Michigan here but friends in many places around the world. In the first few weeks after it hit the US in March, I knew at least three friends of friends who di

Michigan here but friends in many places around the world. In the first few weeks after it hit the US in March, I knew at least three friends of friends who died—one in 70s probably, one I think in 40s, and in one early 30s. I know at least three friends who got it and said it was really rough, including one in his 20s who is a pretty elite athlete. My mom started chemo at the end of February and just had her last one a week ago, so I am personally very grateful that the Michigan took it quite seriously. I believe strongly the problem with something like this is if we take the necessary precautions and cases don't happen, people will say we overreacted. I'm scared to get it as I think we have little understanding about the mid to long term effects. I also fear I will spread it to my parents who are in their 60s. I believe we shut down well to stop the spread but then didn't have a comprehensive national plan to test and trace so that we could reopen and monitor the situation. So I think the testing and tracing didn't receive enough united national push to have a large-scale coordination and then the "team" started to fall apart. Overall, I have been quite impressed with just how much American citizens have helped each other, implemented social distancing, worn masks, and generally took care of ourselves and each other. Sure, there are cases where people don't, but I think those are strongly exaggerated—the people who are loudest on the internet are not typically the most representative of society. I believe one of the biggest failures of the US national government was to not see this as a huge opportunity for the US to lead the world. To dedicate so much of our time and resources to figure this out for Americans so we can figure it out for others. Seems we overlooked how much this is a global problem and covid-19 anywhere is currently a threat everywhere. Also, giving ourselves a little bit of grace compared to Asia, as many Asian countries have had recent practice with a respiratory epidemic, whereas we haven't. That being said, I believe we still dropped the ball in terms of coming together as a country to solve it, and I strongly blame the leaders in Congress and the White House for not galvanizing the country behind the advice of the epidemiological experts.