Why is this pandemic so hard?

After writing the title of this post, the answer that came to mind immediately was, “Well duh, it’s a pandemic stupid.” Yes, pandemics are hard. Maybe the title should be, “Why is the pandemic so hard for the USA? “. It has become clear, relative to the rest of the world, the USA is experiencing a greater impact from coronavirus.
An immediate impulse is to place blame on the government, the president in particular. Perhaps blame is justified, but maybe my question is really about why is the pandemic so hard for American people? No doubt economic consequences, job losses, economic collapse are hard and Americans have not been immune to them. Those cannot be minimized and their impact may very well be long term, if not permanent. What is most interesting and puzzling is what appears to be the hardest part of the pandemic.
An outside observer reading news and social media would probably conclude the greatest hardship for Americans in the pandemic is adherence to guidelines,/mandates, to wear masks, social distance and wash hands. Data indicates adherence to those guidelines can effectively reduce the rate of infections and prevent spreading of the virus.
I fear the legacy of the pandemic for Americans will not be a horrific virus and its tragic death toll; but, the horrible and “unconstitutional” requirements to wear a mask, social distance plus the unfair consequences of closing bars, restaurants and churches.

Conversation between server and customer in Nashville, TN restaurant.

Him: “How late are y’all open tonight?”
Me: “Eleven o’clock.”
Him: “What? I used to hang out here until 3am!”
Me: “Yeah… Because of the virus, restaurants in Nashville get in trouble if they have people here after 11pm.”
Him: “That is so dumb. In Williamson county — just one county over — they have like NO restrictions. I was just there the other day… The restaurant was PACKED.”
Me: “Oh yeah? Stuff like that might be why the U.S. had 183k new cases just yesterday.”
Him: “That’s only because we’re testing so much.”
Me: “We had more new cases yesterday alone than most countries in the world have had TOTAL cases since the pandemic started… You think that’s just due to testing?”
Him: “Anyway, it’s not the CASES that count. It’s how many people die.”
Me: “Unfortunately, we lead the world in that category as well. We have 4% of the world’s population, and 20% of the world’s COVID deaths.”
Him: “That’s only because hospitals are calling things COVID that aren’t COVID to get more money. They get like $10,000 extra to treat COVID cases.”
Me: “So you think doctors are all lying about it to get extra money? I have friends who are doctors and nurses, and I’ve talked to them about it… They are not lying.”
Him: “You think if you ask people if they are embezzling money, they’re just going to say Yes?”
Me: “So ALL of them are just lying for extra money?”
Him: “It’s mostly the hospital administrators. THEY’RE the ones pressuring people to say everything is COVID.”
Me: “And you don’t think — if the doctors & nurses were being pressured to LIE about COVID diagnoses — that anyone would come forward and tell about it? That’s a pretty big conspiracy theory, right there…”
Him: “I have a buddy from the military… Committed suicide. Put a shotgun in his mouth, and killed himself. They marked down his death as being due to COVID-19.”
Me [thinks to myself: “That didn’t happen.”]: “Hmmm. Yeah, well… I have a feeling we’re going to have to shut down again soon…. We missed our chance to take this seriously when we shut everything down in March through May.”
Him: “Europe took it seriously, and now their cases are spiking again just like ours.”
Me: “They’re cases are spiking again in some places where they stopped taking it seriously. Germany has 80 million people, but they only have like 15,000 deaths (the actual number is 12,619 deaths).”
Him: “The only reason the European Union is doing better than us is because they’ve got less people than us.”
Me [considers saying “Fewer,” but decides to say]: “Dude, the E.U. has about 120 million more people than we do.”
Him: “Nope. I just looked it up the other day. We’ve got way more people.”
Me [pulls phone out]: “Hey Siri, how many people are there in the European Union?”
I show him the screen that says “447.7 million,” he says, “I don’t think that’s right,” and I kiss my tip goodbye.

BTW, don’t forget to buckle your seat belt.