[davidork]

A distraction from what?

China still has lockdowns and COVID is still all over the map in the US.

Aside from a few exceptions, most of the world seems to have suffered multiple failures in various areas in handling a pandemic.

[rrwo]

It's a distraction from saying that the US public health system failed to deal with it.

The system (like in most countries) failed to detect that new and potentially virus was circulating for months.

The system failed in encouraging people to take precautions. A significant portion of the population, mostly associated with Republican party, fought against things like mask mandates and social distancing and ended up actively spreading the virus and making the pressures on the health care system worse.

The health care system in the US has been a failure even before the pandemic.

So rather than a constructive report that looks into how the system can be improved before the next pandemic, they'd rather point fingers at a lab.