America Is a Covid Outlier Again

But in a good way this time.

I will never forget, last June, coming across this on my social media timeline.

That is a packed, screaming crowd of New Zealand rugby fans screaming for a game between two rugby teams I know nothing about, playing a sport I do not understand. At this time, in June 2020, sports were still shut down in the United States; the only event happening was the NWSL Challenge Cup, which was in danger of being canceled because of an outbreak with one of the teams and would be played in an antiseptic, empty stadium. Also at this time, the President of the United States was holding a rally, indoors, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in which he not only discouraged people from wearing masks but in fact had his campaign staff take down signs encouraging them to socially distances. This is also the rally that Herman Cain likely contracted the Covid-19 that would kill him a month later. Cases were beginning to surge again throughout the United States, auguring the President himself getting Covid-19 in October and an explosion of cases after the Christmas holiday.