A US flag in lights on a wall in Times Square, New York, in front of an empty street at dusk. | Johannes Eisele/AFP via Getty Images

The countries that defeated the coronavirus have done so collectively. The US’s individualistic approach isn’t working.

Americans have spent much of the Covid-19 pandemic blaming one another for the coronavirus’s spread.

Don’t go to that beach or park. Don’t go to that bar or restaurant. Don’t do anything for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Wear a mask! You don’t want to kill Grandma, do you?

Public officials have joined in. Increasingly, they are blaming private gatherings, not the restaurants and bars they insist on keeping open, for the spread of the disease. In some places, such as the Dakotas, framing Covid-19 prevention as an individual responsibility became the core of the strategy to fight Covid-19. As