They needed a pandemic and he provided it. They messed up. In their hatred and fear of President Trump, they pushed this narrative without having all their pawns in place first. Every state didn't blindly follow the "mandates" leaving outlier states that didn't shut their economies down and didn't demand masks for everyone. Those states had fewer COVID deaths giving the rest of us alternative, and ultimately better, tools that would have allowed us and maybe the world survive this better.