@SyagLchochma
As you say, flattening the curve was to slow the spread until a cure or vaccine is found. So exposure and deaths are certainly preventable. The flatter the curve, the less deaths by the time a cure or vaccine is found.
But regardless, @interjection’s point doesn’t stand. Because the Trump administration has not done an incredible job of handling COVID and “only” 170,000 are dead rather than 2% of the population. As every single country in the world seem to somehow be fairing better.