As of late March, over 550,000 Americans had died from the virus, making the United States the hardest hit country on a raw number basis.
However, on a per capita basis, only 1,690.61 Americans had died per every million residents, placing the U.S. significantly lower than countries like Czechia where the per capital rate had eclipsed 2,400.
Moreover, thanks to the Trump administration’s willingness to do and spend anything to develop and distribute a vaccine, the United States was outperforming large chunks of the world, including nearly all of Europe.
“The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed didn’t worry about the cost of the vaccines or whether the vaccine companies could be held liable for side effects. The Europeans focused on trying to get a low price for the vaccines, and on making sure the vaccine companies could be sued if the vaccines caused problems,” according to The Atlantic.
“The U.S. threw money at the problem, flooding vaccine makers with billions of dollars in subsidies to increase the speed of vaccine testing and manufacturing. Unlike the EU, the U.S. and the U.K. bought millions of doses of various vaccine candidates last summer, without knowing which ones would be effective.”
Months later, much of Europe was still under strict lockdown restrictions as the virus continued to rage, whereas in the United States life was finally returning to normal.
Had current President Joe Biden been in charge at the onset of the outbreak, the entire country would have likely been locked down for months on end.
Yet a year later, some of the best performing U.S. states were red ones like Florida that chose to abstain from locking down in accordance with Trump’s now-vindicated belief that the “cure” mustn’t “be worse than the problem.”