In January this year, COVID-19 struck Italy, the first European stop on the virus’s deadly journey around the world. “Italy’s Health Care System Groans Under Coronavirus,” the New York Times wrote in March, while Germany’s Bild described macabre processions of military trucks delivering the COVID-19 dead to cemeteries.

The global shock over Italy’s tragic fate betrayed a sense of superiority: The disorganized Italians were mishandling the crisis, sure, but the rest of us would know what to do.