> The rest of the world seems to be handling this crisis more or less competently. It seems to be only the US with its aggressively dysfunctional government that can't even manage the basics.

The US is doing better than several prominent nations in Europe, including France, Britain, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands. Given how poorly the US has done, that's really saying something.

The UK wasn't even testing people regularly until the last week (that's over two months late), which is why their case numbers finally began soaring. That's held up as an example of the US failing, while it's ignored when it's done by the UK. It's also why the British PM got infected (another example of competence?).

The US mortality rate vs cases is under 2%.

Mortality rates vs cases: Italy: 11.4%, Spain: 8.6%, The Netherlands 7.3%, France: 6.7%, UK: 6.2%, Belgium: 5.5%

The US needs to increase its per capita mortality rate 21 times to match Italy and Spain. Five times to match France. 2.5 times to match the UK. Seven times to match Belgium. Six times to match the Netherlands.

I entirely disagree with your notion of competence.

Italy and Spain have 20,000 deaths and still climbing rapidly. The US requires 64,000 deaths and ~800,000 cases to match Spain's present figures; approximately 65,000 deaths to match Italy's present figures.

Germany's 67,000 positive cases is competence? That's obviously not true. Their mortality rate is showing competence so far, however. The US per capita mortality rate is only slightly behind Germany's outcome so far.

For the US to match Switzerland's cases per capita, it needs 650,000 positive cases, and the final tally isn't in yet. That's an example of extreme incompetence. If the US gets to 650,000 cases, nobody is going to say that is a great success, it will be considered an immense failure. And it's an immense failure for Switzerland as well.

To match Belgium's rate, the US needs about 400,000 cases. Nobody will define that as success or competence if the US hits that many cases. And it's not competence for Belgium either, to say nothing of their extreme mortality rate. The US will require ~23,000 deaths from Covid to match the per capita rate in Belgium. I assure you that will not be declared as competence if it happens.

The EU has shown tragic incompetence widely. It's ripping the EU apart, as they've entirely abanoned Italy and Spain, leaving them alone to fend for themselves. The first thing Germany and other EU nations did is lock down their own medical supplies and refuse to help their fellow EU members that were in the most need. Then the borders began to shut down, further isolating their friends in such desperate need. So far China has helped Italy with more supplies than the other EU members have. That's a demonstration of competence? Obviously it's the opposite, the EU has failed across the board. They're making the US look really organized by comparison.

Some figures for comparison, per 100,000 people.

Notice the US just above Germany at the bottom. The US still has to climb a long ways to reach the level of ... competence displayed by the supposedly elite healthcare systems in Western Europe. And if it does, it will then be declared to be on par with Europe's finest healthcare systems?

Italy: deaths 19.6, cases 156

Spain: deaths 17.4, cases 200

Belgium: deaths 6.2, cases 112

Netherlands: deaths 5, cases 69

France: deaths 4.5, cases 67

Switzerland: deaths 4.34, cases 185

Luxembourg: deaths 3.7, cases 331

UK: deaths 2.1, cases 34

Denmark: deaths 1.6, cases 53

Austria: deaths 1.5, cases 112

Sweden: deaths 1.4, cases 40

Portugal: deaths 1.4, cases 63

Ireland: deaths 1.1, cases 60

US: deaths 0.9, cases 47

Iceland: deaths 0.6, cases 302

Germany: deaths 0.79, cases 81

Norway: deaths 0.65, cases 83

Finland: deaths 0.23, cases 26

* Note: Sweden, Finland and Norway have almost no recovery cases, which is why their mortality rates are still low. Several other European nations have extremely low recovery cases, so their mortality rates will jump even higher yet (eg the Netherlands). Germany by contrast has a lot of recovered cases already, so its mortality rate would be expected to remain quite low.