The figures suggest that the United States squandered its potential advantages, like two additional weeks of lead time for preparation and a single national government with superior resources. The U.S. response has fallen mainly to state and local authorities, yielding an even less unified response than in Western Europe. Most Western European governments have enacted stringent social-distancing measures that go beyond what has been implemented in much of the United States.

Western Europe appears to have had more success in testing as well. It has conducted at least twice as many tests as the United States, and probably far more. (Much of that European data is out of date, as many nations do not appear to frequently update their published figures on testing).