We know for a fact that the media and hundreds of politicians engaged in obvious messaging coordination. Is that not design?
Even though I have my theories, it's impossible to know for certain if there is anyone at the top handing down orders. So what is the benefit of conceptualizing it as not-designed? Why are you interested in doing so? It's almost like you're turning the COVID response in a philosophical debate on free will and social chaos theory. I think it's a waste of time. It goes back to my point about Hammurabi's building code. He didn't care if the architect booby trapped the house on purpose. If he does a bad job and someone dies, he has to follow. Simple as that. Now that's motivation. It's almost like you want to give these degenerates an excuse. And if there does happen to be someone at the top designing it all, they wouldn't get very far if we hung all their useful tools from lampposts.
Our problem isn't that we aren't nuanced enough. It's that we're too nuanced. If anything, we need more people screaming "burn the witch".