That study says the UK did better than us even though they have more deaths per million and have instituted stricter and longer lockdowns.
Yeah, in that chart they are mixing in other aspects, like testing, tracing, and vaccination rates. In those metrics, the UK is actually well ahead of most the globe.
But the new UK variant, more contagious and (likely) more deadly, has overcome the standard mitigations and now they screwed, as per the chart. It's here too, along with the Brazil and SA variants. We're going to be screwed too.
I think our response was largely irrelevant other than mobilizing resources and vaccine production, which we did well at.
We've done very well at the vaccine, for sure.
I'd say the rest of it we get a D- to an F+. Lack of PPE (even now), lack of testing, lack of genetic tracking, lack of consistent messaging, politicization, states competing with each other for resources, Hydroxychloroquine ratholes, simultaneously pursuing herd immunity while prepping vaccines. I struggle think of a more screwed up response short of just convincing everyone to attend a Covid party and get it in one week.
The Scandinavian countries and the modern Asian ones (Taiwan, Japan, SK, etc.) have all done far better than we have, in spite of the fact that it was going there too. Use that chart to see.