[magnus]

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.

Thanks for digging out the dates, GR.  

Looks like I didn't fully understand the ground rules.  You were talking global timeline and not individual country timelines because otherwise, one could argue that some countries took the correct action (Norway) when the virus came knocking and others didn't (Italy, Spain, US, UK, Germany).  One could argue that Norway got it later, but then again, the US and UK got it relatively later than Italy (lots of "trailing by 2 weeks" talk in the beginning), but it didn't do any good.

If we're talking global timeline, then sure, I would agree that no Western country reacted with the same speed as some of the more successful Asian countries like South Korea, Singapore or Taiwan.  But, on a global timeline, the US and UK reacted even slower than Italy (again, that comparing to Italy thing...not good).  All the more shocking because we (americans) expect to be the leaders of everything.

[magnus]

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.

Thanks for digging out the dates, GR.  

Looks like I didn't fully understand the ground rules.  You were talking global timeline and not individual country timelines because otherwise, one could argue that some countries took the correct action (Norway) when the virus came knocking and others didn't (Italy, Spain, US, UK, Germany).  One could argue that Norway got it later, but then again, the US and UK got it relatively later than Italy (lots of "trailing by 2 weeks" talk in the beginning), but it didn't do any good.

If we're talking global timeline, then sure, I would agree that no Western country reacted with the same speed as some of the more successful Asian countries like South Korea, Singapore or Taiwan.  But, on a global timeline, the US and UK reacted even slower than Italy (again, that comparing to Italy thing...not good).  All the more shocking because we (americans) expect to be the leaders of everything.