[Goose]

The much simpler explanations (Occam’s Razor) are that Americans did not test, isolate, mask, and social distance sufficiently.  You could more easily argue from that that the US had too much freedom of expression and too little public health if your objective were to limit death.

I would limit it to too little public health. The public health agencies have the legal authority to compel compliance with necessary measures. In general, they have been totally unwilling to even attempt to do so. The freedoms of expression that we do have are not unlimited. Unfortunately, our public agencies have not forcefully reminded us of that fact enough in the past 50 years or so and are unwilling to start now.

[Goose]

The much simpler explanations (Occam’s Razor) are that Americans did not test, isolate, mask, and social distance sufficiently.  You could more easily argue from that that the US had too much freedom of expression and too little public health if your objective were to limit death.

I would limit it to too little public health. The public health agencies have the legal authority to compel compliance with necessary measures. In general, they have been totally unwilling to even attempt to do so. The freedoms of expression that we do have are not unlimited. Unfortunately, our public agencies have not forcefully reminded us of that fact enough in the past 50 years or so and are unwilling to start now.