The aspect of the pandemic which impacts the USA most greatly is not the number of dead bodies, it is the loss of the perception of the USA as a global leader. Nobody thinks that Italy was key to handling the Ebola outbreak, so they did not lose their reputation over this. In fact everybody knows that Italy is a basket case led by craven criminals. But the USA was until recently viewed as the nation that could coordinate global action against pandemics. Now, everyone sees China as that nation. China is exporting masks and test kits and whatnot. USA is importing them. Officials with the German Marshall Fund, essentially a US propaganda outlet leftover from the Cold War, are going on the record discussing America's abdication of leadership.