The biggest failure of COVID-19 was that its mortality rate was too low. Which allowed populist movements to dismiss it as being a conspiracy, because the rate of death per 100,000 was negligible compared to common causes of death annually.
If COVID-19's mortality rate was 1 in 10,000 or 1 in 1000 instead, the entire world would have taken it far more seriously and dismissing it as a conspiracy would have been next to impossible, because people would be literally dropping like flies. Large group events would be impossible to hold as 1,000 people might attend and 10% would be dead within 2-3 weeks of the event. Paranoia, personal safety, and social responsibility initiatives would rocket through the atmosphere. Anyone who then wouldn't follow the rules would become a threat to society and made an example of.
Alas, none of that happened. Couple with that that most societal healthcare frameworks are complete trash and the wealth appropriation that's been taking place for generations, mostly in an upwards direction, coupled with summary neglect of common infrastructure and investments in education and development of QoL improving at scale technologies, means that by and large, the human race is inept and incapable of handling a global pandemic in a highly connected world. Especially where up to 30% of its population thinks the virus is a conspiracy and a hoax, irrespective of its mortality rate.
Ironically, both sides of the isle want to move past the virus, but neither ultimately can't because one side doesn't take it seriously and the other side cannot produce enough doses, means of distribution, and guarantee of reducing total infection likely population to trivial numbers through vaccination campaigns, to ensure that society as a whole can move past the crisis.
Which results in a scenario where the virus has a statistically significant portion of the world always available to infect, mutate, get more contagious, become more resistant to medications over time.
