April 9, 2020

I prepared the table below. I am far from an expert on Pandemics but I think we can glean some information. The table compares five countries.

China was hit first. Despite not knowing exactly what the virus was they took quick steps to quarantine the sick population and stopped travel from hotspots.  After a period of strong isolation they seem to have it under control.  They only suffered two deaths per million people, a very small total. Of course there is some skepticism that there numbers are accurate. As a Communist country they have the advantage of being able to quickly enforce public health safety measures. This is harder to do in a democracy.

South Korea also did very well. Despite sharing a border with China and having a great deal of economic interchange, they were able to stop the spread of the disease and only suffered 4 deaths per million people. And they are a vibrant democracy but took very strong and effective steps to stop the spread of the virus.

Canada has also done well do date, with 12 deaths per million people. They are very similar to the USA in many ways but they acted much sooner and more effectively.

The USA has not done well. We saw what was happening in China but failed to prepare properly. Instead of mounting an aggressive plan to contain the virus our leadership ignored it. We were too slow to quarantine people and let each State and City to decide when to shelter in place and adopt social distancing. We allowed spring break to continue with young people going to  Florida for a massive beach party, spreading the disease. This was a nationwide problem and needed a nationwide effort. We still do not have that, which means our problem will likely get much worse.

Italy of course has to date the worst outcome to date. They did not move quickly enough to quarantine and shelter in place.  

Each country is of course different. China, Italy, and South Korea have dense populations with many people living very close together. Congestion on transit systems is a problem.  The US and Canada are far more spread out, with a much higher percent of the population driving instead of taking transit.
Sources:

Population:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_(United_Nations)

Deaths From Covid-19  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/