Americans need to stop failing test of our lifetimes

This should be a season of hope: We will shortly be getting a highly effective coronavirus vaccine, and the pandemic should wind down in the coming months.

Yet this is the most wretched holiday season of my life. Consider: More Americans have died from COVID-19 in nine months than in combat over four years inWorldWar II. The virus death toll exceeds 292,000, compared with 291,557 AmericanWorld War II battle deaths.

We’re sometimes now losing more Americans from the virus in a single day than perished in the Pearl Harbor attacks or 9/11. But contrary to viral memes floating around the internet, the virus is not creating the “deadliest days” in American history: In October 1918, in a much smaller population, more than 6,000 Americans died of the Spanish flu on average each day for the entire month.

If American states were treated as countries, places with the highest per capita coronavirus death rates would be Slovenia, South Dakota, North Dakota, Bulgaria, Iowa, Bosnia, Hungary, Croatia, Illinois,

North Macedonia, Rhode Island, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, San Marino.

A pandemic is a test of a country’s governance, and this is one the United States has failed. Much of that is on President Trump’s colossal failure of leadership, but it also reflects a deeper skepticism about science and a proclivity toward personal irresponsibility — such as refusing to wear masks.

Historically, national crises have always stressed the social fabric. The plague led to attacks on Jews and poor harvests set off witch trials. Today as well, too many politicians and ordinary Americans disdain science or any iota of personal responsibility, polarizing the country and misleading fellow citizens.

“Open America up,” Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, tweeted recently. “Masks don’t work,” said Ron

Paul, the former Republican presidential candidate. Both these assertions defy science and public health recommendations; they are not just misleading but potentially lethal. All this may worsen the pandemic.

“I think we’re going to go up for weeks,” warns Dr. Tom Frieden, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Cases are cresting in the upper Midwest, but that’s just from massively high rates, and the post-Thanksgiving bump is just beginning to play out.”

Just as the Thanksgiving bump fades, I fear, the Christmas bump will arrive.

It’s not that the coronavirus can’t be controlled: Europe had a terrible autumn wave but reined in the virus — while keeping schools open. Yet the U.S. as a whole still can’t match Europe in rationally managing the virus.

While Republicans have been particularly irresponsible in resisting face masks, it is mostly local Democratic officials who have irresponsibly kept schools closed more than necessary. As I’ve argued since May, that exacerbates inequality and learning gaps — without significantly curbing the virus.

“If the status quo continues, students of color stand to lose 11 to 12 months of learning by the end of the [school] year,” McKinsey & Company warns in a new report. White students would be set back by less, four to eight months, it says.

Refusing to wear a mask is today’s equivalent of drunken driving. The odds of killing someone are low, but collectively this year the refusal to wear masks will kill far more Americans than driving under the influence.

This is the test of our lifetimes. Let’s stop failing it.