Not to be political, in in general, liberals admire how Europe does things and wants to emulate how they think Europe does stuff. Vis a vis COVID, there is a "theme" that the US really screwed up badly and Europe did it right. As usual, I think a lot of this comes from "Form the conclusion and then seek data to confirm it (and ignore the rest)."
We've discussed the various differences between the US and Europe. Most of Europe is less federalized than is the US system of government. The FrenchK-12 schools are all nationally run, not locally. Their President has a lot more power than ours. There was dispute here about how much a President COULD do beyond give advice.
A lot of "us" view the world through a partisan lens, which in my view is ultimately dangerous.