Freedom means the right to behave as one wants to behave without hindrance or restraint, including by governmental authority.
Many Americans value freedom above all else, especially freedom from governmental authority.
In the March 2022 edition of Scientific American magazine Robin G. Nelson, a biological anthropologist at Arizona State University, writes that in New Zealand the government “…countered COVID with nationwide stay-at-home orders, border controls, hygiene campaigns, accessible testing and contact tracing… 18 months into the pandemic the country had seen only 27 COVID deaths…”
Taiwan instituted “…a 14-day isolation policy for travelers entering the country… increasing border controls and deputizing quarantine officers who could help isolated citizens.  By March 2021 there had been only 10 COVID deaths in a country of nearly 24 million people.”
In March 2021 the USA population was well over 330 million, and at that time the CDC reported nearly 965,000 Americans dead from COVID.
That is the price of freedom.