Maybe. But to be fair, there was and still is a tremendous amount of uncertainty about this disease. I remember the WHO in January saying - briefly - that it was not spreading human to human. I remember that blond doctor on Good Morning America saying in March that face masks were not recommended. I think any president of any party would be trying to balance the economy versus health measures - Republican, Democrat, whatever. Messaging would very likely have been much better, but I can imagine that a Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton might have not differed that much from Trump in actual policy. But who knows.
The European Union’s stricter, almost universal lockdown measures worked in comparison to the US where 50 governors set 50 policies. The question for them now is, can they reopen at all before a vaccine without a surge in cases?
