[Genuine Realist]

Canada and Japan are in the G7, and it looks like Canada has the best response in North America and Japan has the best G7 response.

Why does Japan keep getting praised for a good response?  Their numbers have been climbing exponentially over the last month and their citizens are in an uproar over their PM's handling of things.  (Some say low testing resulted on early depressed numbers)

Maybe they'll figure it out faster than us,  but
just as we shouldn't compare to Italy.  Others shouldn't compare to us.

---

I hate to break the bad news, but the prime object of comparison is Germany - which is supposed to have done all the right things. In fact, it did all the same things.

And I repeat the somewhat embittering challenge - find a Western nation that did any better -or even any different.

I wouldn't have put Germany on a pedestal.  They were acclaimed for their early low death rate, but one theory behind their early depressed numbers was that their early testing heavily skewed towards the younger demographic.  Which meant lower deaths per cases found.  Soon after their death numbers climbed and caught up with other countries.  

As for Western nations that did better.  As mentioned above, how about Norway?  Australia?  Maybe even Austria and Denmark?  I haven't followed any of the media coverage on those countries so no idea if there's an ulterior reason behind their curves, but boy do their curves look nice! =)

You really want to go there? Australia experienced its first case on January 20th. Between the 20th and 30th, some very modest controls were in place at international airports, e.g., passengers were asked to self-identify if they felt sick or feverish and  report to a docor.

On January 31sr, the same day as Trump's travel ban, Australia began to require a two week quarantine, in which travelers fromChina had to reside in a different nation, until they would be allowed in Australia. (How that works in practice I don't know.) Two days later, in early February, a complete ban was imposed.

After the disease continued to spread throughout February, shutdowns of various events morphed into a full fledged lock down in mid-March.

Norway? Did not experience its first case until February 26th, which means it is really not a fair comparison, since the word was out by that time. Nonetheless, the health authorities took half measures, until a full lockdown was imposed on March 12th - pretty much the same time it was happening every where else.

You can search the world looking for these mythical infectious disease experts who beat the clock. Institutionally, they don't exist. You have a ffw prescient seers like akiddoc, who made personal financial decisions wisely. But no one, either singly or collectively, who could do it at the governmental level.

You guys search for an exception. You're not going to find any, except for a couple of outliers that border China.

[Genuine Realist]

Canada and Japan are in the G7, and it looks like Canada has the best response in North America and Japan has the best G7 response.

Why does Japan keep getting praised for a good response?  Their numbers have been climbing exponentially over the last month and their citizens are in an uproar over their PM's handling of things.  (Some say low testing resulted on early depressed numbers)

Maybe they'll figure it out faster than us,  but
just as we shouldn't compare to Italy.  Others shouldn't compare to us.

---

I hate to break the bad news, but the prime object of comparison is Germany - which is supposed to have done all the right things. In fact, it did all the same things.

And I repeat the somewhat embittering challenge - find a Western nation that did any better -or even any different.

I wouldn't have put Germany on a pedestal.  They were acclaimed for their early low death rate, but one theory behind their early depressed numbers was that their early testing heavily skewed towards the younger demographic.  Which meant lower deaths per cases found.  Soon after their death numbers climbed and caught up with other countries.  

As for Western nations that did better.  As mentioned above, how about Norway?  Australia?  Maybe even Austria and Denmark?  I haven't followed any of the media coverage on those countries so no idea if there's an ulterior reason behind their curves, but boy do their curves look nice! =)

You really want to go there? Australia experienced its first case on January 20th. Between the 20th and 30th, some very modest controls were in place at international airports, e.g., passengers were asked to self-identify if they felt sick or feverish and  report to a docor.

On January 31sr, the same day as Trump's travel ban, Australia began to require a two week quarantine, in which travelers fromChina had to reside in a different nation, until they would be allowed in Australia. (How that works in practice I don't know.) Two days later, in early February, a complete ban was imposed.

After the disease continued to spread throughout February, shutdowns of various events morphed into a full fledged lock down in mid-March.

Norway? Did not experience its first case until February 26th, which means it is really not a fair comparison, since the word was out by that time. Nonetheless, the health authorities took half measures, until a full lockdown was imposed on March 12th - pretty much the same time it was happening every where else.

You can search the world looking for these mythical infectious disease experts who beat the clock. Institutionally, they don't exist. You have a ffw prescient seers like akiddoc, who made personal financial decisions wisely. But no one, either singly or collectively, who could do it at the governmental level.

You guys search for an exception. You're not going to find any, except for a couple of outliers that border China.