Less than many other year's death toll from any of the other flu strains that seem to pop up to kill us all every year. Perhaps an even more inconvenient truth.

People in NYC were kind of stupid to continue to ride the crowded subways as the pandemic was spreading. What an easy way to catch it.

100,000 Americans are dead. Perhaps an inconvenient truth here.

We have switched from seeing the virus as the enemy to seeing our OWN government as our enemy for stealing our rights. About time.

A good article. Thanks WD. Some comments, which elaborate:

Point 1. The data being so imprecise, as is usual, how to analyze and how to deal with the problem, and by whom, becomes an exercise in guesswork.
Point 2. why they went so wrong. They did not so much as go wrong, rather they were wrong from the outset. Available data was/is weak, the wrong people were given the job. The most notorious case is Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London. Ferguson would have been selected on his reputation as a scaremonger. Grossly large numbers of fatalities were forecast, this enabled governments to bring in measures otherwise unpalatable, the public, well msm, love a good scare so got what they deserved. Meanwhile, The Donald and Boris claim a great victory for their policies as deaths are so much lower than the experts predicted.
Point 3. Yes. But there is now evidence that NY was hit by a more virulent mutation from Europe rather than from Wuhan direct. Closing the border to China by Trump was the right decision, not closing all borders was a bad decision.
Lessons-
- the ability to mutate quickly reduces the chance of a one-shot vaccine being effective, so big pharma gets annual big on-going business! (shsh about Vitamin D, HCQ with zinc, etc)
- lockdown at least in NYC was essential (IMO), but fast border closure could have avoided lockdown.
- US experts (nearly all) and the solid phalanx of Demos were initially oblivious to the dangers, Trump followed advice that he was given, he closed the border too late, lockdown was inevitable.
- The US, in fact everyone, should have learned from Taiwan, closed border fast, masks, ready with supplies of PPE that were not available to Chinese buyers! (see daigou) and no lockdown needed
Point 4,5,6,7,8 Yes. Appalling.
so, from closing borders too late, lockdown was needed (IMO but perhaps only for NYC), economic calamity is to be treated by helicopter money, they say.

Who did everything right? Taiwan
Who did everything wrong? The UK
Interesting cases- Japan, Sweden.
What about China (well the CCP)? It looks like the inquiry is to be conducted by WHO, effectively a subsidiary of the CCP. There are books to be written on this, I do not see reparations. I'd like to see a court ..

I never saw 'the Crisis'. I just assumed everyone had been drinking something funny.

"The perpetrators of this blitzkrieg attack on economic freedom, the alpha authoritarians like Cuomo and Bill de Blasio, should be stopped. Lose at the polls. And go down in history as self-aggrandizing commissars in the story of the virus that caused economic suicide."

In simple American English, Hell Yes!

Thanks for the excellent factual recap and accurate, rational analysis, WD. 👍