You can only relate failings to your own personal experiences in life and for me there was at least two failings to start with. The first was I was struggling to believe in the pandemic, because the governing bodies, were not reacting in a manner that I would logically expect them to. Meaning, closing the borders. Now whether that would've made a difference or not is irrelevant it's the message it sends out to your citizens, we are closed for business - then someone such as myself will take you seriously.
However, the second failing, was just not about closing the borders, it was the dithering, the weekend of the closure we had a full fixture of football matches, they were not postponed until virtually the last minute, some non league games still went ahead. It's this dithering that cost lives.
That's without adding the arguments of PPE to the equasion. Again I get it, it's a pandemic, you are not going to be able to supply the vast quantities you require, but part of this is also to blame on your own decisions within the manufactoring industry, when you rely on China for the supply. It became a dog eat dog world overnight, China and Germany were both looking to protect their own interests.
Finally and the most insulting, is massaging figures, don't treat people like fools. Even if you have basis for the lack of PPE, there can be no excuse for outright lying.