And I can probably summarize this thinking with one phrase... different cultures.
Americans don't like their freedoms being taken away for pretty much any reason. Still too "new" of a Country, still too much distrust about the ideas from the rest of the world. You can see it in literally dozens of items.
Many countries in this World have banned weapons from being accessed by the general public. In the US, we largely won't even entertain the idea of a civilian not being able to own an arsenal of mililtary-designed assault weapons, despite there being no earthly practical application for their usage by a civilian. Why? Because we don't like being told what to do.
We're not going to take what China or Russia or even Europe does in response to a pandemic at face value, because we simply don't trust some of those leaders or Countries to be transparent and do what's in their own Countries best interest, let alone World leadership. China especially, which is essentially the source point.
From an economic standpoint, its capitalism. That's why it won't happen. I could argue both sides of whether it should or shouldn't happen. I think there are ways you can provide "stimulus" without putting direct cash in their pockets from government loans or tax deferrals. And some of those things we did, and some of them we didn't.
There's three challenges the US has with the pandemic:
1. Liberals spend 100% of their time telling Conservatives how badly they've screwed up the last six months, and spend 0% of their time proposing any legitimate, reasonable, enforceable solutions to the problem. Their only responsibility, in their eyes, is to tell people who's to blame for their problem and why they should be afraid of it. They are the party of precisely zero actual ideas. They label themselves as the "progressive" party. They're not. They're the "reactionary" party.
2. Conservatives spend 100% of their time defending their own bad decisions, and are taking the widest, macro-based-solution possible to fighting the pandemic, with very little regard for short-term assistance. They are the party of precisely bad ideas.
3. The single biggest problem, without question, is purely just people. People are stupid. They'll believe anything anybody tells them. We have people killing themselves by drinking bleach because the President made an off-hand, joking comment about how maybe people should drink bleach to kill the virus, since it kills the virus on surfaces.
Americans do want they want to do, and they deal with the consequences that come from them. That's what we do. Its great when its great, but when its bad, its really bad. And when its bad, a lot of people come looking for help from a government that it largely ignored.
I leave this here as a the perfect example of how American's react to this pandemic...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/us/politics/kristin-urquiza-dad-covid-trump.html
This woman claims that her father died because the President told him it was OK to continue doing whatever he wanted during a pandemic. She's an idiot. Her father didn't die because Trump killed her. Her father died because when the Governor of his State loosened lockdown restrictions, he, at 65, went out to a crowded bar to do Karaoke with his friends. No mask, no social distancing, basically no precautions.
And his daughter uses his death to politicize the idea that he had no choice. That he was simply "doing what he was told to do". THAT is American politics. One side blaming the other for a bad decision that they made themselves.
THAT is why Americans are struggling with the pandemic. Its arrogance and stupidity.