Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesLast year, German health minister Karl Lauterbach did something politicians almost never do unless they’ve been caught with their pants down: He apologized. Closing schools for long periods during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lauterbach said, had been an “unnecessary mistake.”Where is our Lauterbach?Though President Joe Biden wasn’t in office at the start of the pandemic, he and other prominent Democrats have had ample opportunities to acc