The government has blown the response to the coronavirus, COVID-19, but there is time to hit the reset button. The first mistake: America was not prepared. The nation’s leaders did not have masks, ventilators and other health supplies warehoused in adequate numbers for a pandemic. Buying and warehousing such items is costly. But the public now knows the greater cost is failing to stockpile health staples. Being ill-prepared has proved disastrous. An even bigger and deadlier mistake involves politicizing public safety. Politics came into play due to concern about the impact the virus could have on the economy and, by extension, on the political fortunes of national and state political figures. The political concern is understandable, though unacceptable. To address the virus properly at the start of the pandemic would have required the federal government to take painful steps: shuttering businesses, issuing stay-home orders and mandating essential workers to wear safety masks. If…