COVID-19¡¯s path of destruction has not exempted the pieties about it. People who said it was ¡°just the flu¡± don¡¯t look wise after nearly 540,000 deaths in the U.S. But ¡°14 days to flatten the curve¡± didn¡¯t turn out to be prescient either

The more partisan the narrative, the worse it has fared. Liberals have spent much of the pandemic fretting about red-state irresponsibility. But the four states with the highest percentage of COVID-19 deaths all vote consistently for Democratic presidential candidates. Florida, though a consistent target of progressive criticism, has a death rate well below the national average.

Some conservatives, for their part, predicted that we¡¯d stop hearing about the pandemic as soon as the election was over. Instead, the deadliest weeks came after it, and both politicians and the press kept talking about it.