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I will also point out that rates of mask usage are higher now than ever, yet we are seeing the spike. I won't pretend to give an explanation, but it is just a fact. See this article:

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/...poll-finds

And I won't defend Trump's rhetoric. I will say this- the administration stopped travel from China on January 31, and a lot of the people skewering Trump now were at the time calling him a bigot, while also encouraging people to go about their business. But my larger issue here is that the vast majority of this country appears to have a fundamental misunderstanding of how our government works. It's ironic- people who like to call Trump a dictator at the same time argue he should do things only a dictator could. The President of the United States cannot mandate wearing a mask. Congress can't even do that. The federal government, under our Constitution (that still exists, by the way) does not have general police powers. It cannot order shutdowns of businesses. All the things people say Trump hasn't been doing- he doesn't have the authority. Our Constitution and laws don't cease to exist just because there is a pandemic, although at times it seems like it. So I would ask you- list for me the things you would have done if you were President. And not just "I wouldn't say stupid sh!t on Twitter," because that's low hanging fruit.

In the end, a lot of this was unavoidable. If a virus like this gets loose in a free society, people will die. This isn't China- you can't post police on the street and arrest whoever comes out of their homes. We can wear masks, physically distance (that's another peeve of mine- the phrase "social distancing"- that doesn't make any sense. We aren't distancing ourselves socially, we're distancing ourselves physically. More stupidity in this whole mess), put up all the plexiglass you want- in the end only a vaccine or herd immunity ends this. And a lot of really freaking smart people have spent this year moving mountains to make that vaccine happen, and to me that is the story here. That is human spirit and ingenuity. And a lot of that is being done because of the Trump administration. Twenty years from now, when the final word is written, there will be a lot of negative things that can be said about him, but some positives, too. And some people can't/won't admit that. Such as the governor of New York, who lamented the vaccine coming out too soon.