If My President had gone on teevee every day and said, "we can't close down the economy, we can't close down the schools, we have to keep going, but please, please, everybody work from home if you can, wear masks whenever you can, do not meet with other people if you do not have to, just please go about your normal lives but do everything you can to prevent the spread of this horrible disease," it might not have been enough, but it would have been a lot better.
Turning Covid denialism into the GOP platform (the only one, they didn't write any other) was not helpful.