Coronavirus and The Myopia of American Exceptionalism

On March 4, as Covid-19 was spreading rapidly through parts of the US, but remained almost untraceable for lack of testing kits, a friend of mine texted me somberly, “this has made me soberly reflect on the fact that for the first time America may be shown up for what it has become—a lazy, second-rate power in the world, whose brightest minds are engaged in selling ad space on Google and Facebook.”