I read back over a lot of our early postings yesterday. "We" (and they) just didn't know very much at the time. Sure, the politicization was unfortunate, but frankly, nobody anywhere handled this remarkably well. As noted above, COVID was going to do its thing regardless. We had the myth the vaccine would stop it in its tracks despite many noting the virus would mutate. We had the early myth you could get it from food and hard surfaces.
As for who would have handled it better, I agree with the above comment that COVID was going to do its thing no matter what "we" did about it beyond perhaps changing the shape of the curve. Germany was held out as a model to emulate but they have not done well either. China, well, they did "flatten the curve" for a while.
What I learned I think is to protect the elderly and vulnerable as well as possible and then carry on.