Since the spread of COVID-19 launched a global pandemic in 2020, over half a million Americans have been killed by the virus. And experts agree the death and infection rates have been much worse in the West—mainly the United States and Europe—than many other places in the East.
In other words, while other countries like China, Cambodia and New Zealand were able to temper the spread, the U.S. had its ass handed back to it.
There are a lot of reasons for this, says David Wallace-Wells, New York magazine writer and author of How the West Lost COVID, in this bonus episode of The New Abnormal. Factors like population age and geographic location played a role in these places’ ability to control the virus, but ultimately, one of the most “catastrophic” factors that played into the death toll, is something we very much had control over. And that is how our leaders responded and our collective culture, on both a federal and local level.