[Genuine Realist]

The key in Germany is they tested early and they tested a lot.  The countries that struggled (Spain, Italy, the US) struggled because they were flying blind until lots of people started showing up in the hospital.  Italy was caught unawares as one of the first countries outside of China to be hit hard.  In the US, having a poorly developed and fractured public health response certainly didn't help, but the testing screw up compounded all the problems.

Spaniards and Italians are not exactly known for compliance and following government orders.  Their response was much too late, but when instituted was effective.  Italy had 584 cases and 117 deaths in the last 24 hours, Spain had 510 cases and 1(!) death.  And while the high death rate might have made them more willing to listen to their governments, UK has had similar death rates (plus news of their PM in the ICU) and is still struggling to get the epidemic under control (2013 new cases/412 new deaths).  I have a soft spot for Boris Johnson, but he has not dealt with the pandemic well; dithering at first whether to do a Swedish style response, then instituting the lockdown late, and then lifting it with the poorly defined slogan "stay alert!".

BC

I think you may have forgotten that Germany was one of the countries I examined on the Timeline post, since it was often held up as the better role model. In any case, here's the Wikipedia link to the German experience, somewhat updated.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_p...in_Germany

In fine, the German experience through the time I wrote was almost identical with the US. Relative insouciance during January, rising case load during February, drastic government reaction in mid-March - almost identical with the US. The German health minister, Jens Spahn, expressed more concern about stigmatisation and xenophobia  well into February. As late as February 13th,he opposed closing travel to China for that reason. (I believe he has resigned, as have the health ministers of France, Italy, Iran, Roumania,and others - I am not exactlu sure of this.) That's two weeks after Trump closed off travel to China and Europe, and was roundly condemned for it.

The supposedly well-prepared Germans also found themselves strikingly short of masks, hand sanitizers, and other medical equipment. To be sure, the German experience since the controls were implemented in mid-March have been better than other countries. But that's not because they were first, or better prepared, or any such thing. It almost certainly has to do with the culture and related demographics. 

As to well-prepared health departments, to the best of my knowledge, the health secretaries of France, Germany, Italy, Iran, Brazil, Roumania, and God knows how many others have all resigned. (This may be mildly inaccurate). Everywhere, health departments were caught like peaceti armies, caught flatfooted in the face of a challenge that dwarfed anthing theyhad been prepared for.

I have been here before. You can espouse all the reverse exceptionalism you want. But when you search the worlc, you're not going to find any nation that got the jump on this, other than a few island and peninsular nations with regimented societies, probably reacting to SARS type virus and serendipitously meeting the challenge of Covid. This is not a world in which there were iceberg warnings everywhere, and nations (including the US) sailed blithely ahead. It was a world with no warnings at all until late February'early March, at which time every nation in the Western world did pretty much the same thing at the same time.

[Genuine Realist]

The key in Germany is they tested early and they tested a lot.  The countries that struggled (Spain, Italy, the US) struggled because they were flying blind until lots of people started showing up in the hospital.  Italy was caught unawares as one of the first countries outside of China to be hit hard.  In the US, having a poorly developed and fractured public health response certainly didn't help, but the testing screw up compounded all the problems.

Spaniards and Italians are not exactly known for compliance and following government orders.  Their response was much too late, but when instituted was effective.  Italy had 584 cases and 117 deaths in the last 24 hours, Spain had 510 cases and 1(!) death.  And while the high death rate might have made them more willing to listen to their governments, UK has had similar death rates (plus news of their PM in the ICU) and is still struggling to get the epidemic under control (2013 new cases/412 new deaths).  I have a soft spot for Boris Johnson, but he has not dealt with the pandemic well; dithering at first whether to do a Swedish style response, then instituting the lockdown late, and then lifting it with the poorly defined slogan "stay alert!".

BC

I think you may have forgotten that Germany was one of the countries I examined on the Timeline post, since it was often held up as the better role model. In any case, here's the Wikipedia link to the German experience, somewhat updated.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_p...in_Germany

In fine, the German experience through the time I wrote was almost identical with the US. Relative insouciance during January, rising case load during February, drastic government reaction in mid-March - almost identical with the US. The German health minister, Jens Spahn, expressed more concern about stigmatisation and xenophobia  well into February. As late as February 13th,he opposed closing travel to China for that reason. (I believe he has resigned, as have the health ministers of France, Italy, Iran, Roumania,and others - I am not exactlu sure of this.) That's two weeks after Trump closed off travel to China and Europe, and was roundly condemned for it.

The supposedly well-prepared Germans also found themselves strikingly short of masks, hand sanitizers, and other medical equipment. To be sure, the German experience since the controls were implemented in mid-March have been better than other countries. But that's not because they were first, or better prepared, or any such thing. It almost certainly has to do with the culture and related demographics. 

As to well-prepared health departments, to the best of my knowledge, the health secretaries of France, Germany, Italy, Iran, Brazil, Roumania, and God knows how many others have all resigned. (This may be mildly inaccurate). Everywhere, health departments were caught like peaceti armies, caught flatfooted in the face of a challenge that dwarfed anthing theyhad been prepared for.

I have been here before. You can espouse all the reverse exceptionalism you want. But when you search the worlc, you're not going to find any nation that got the jump on this, other than a few island and peninsular nations with regimented societies, probably reacting to SARS type virus and serendipitously meeting the challenge of Covid. This is not a world in which there were iceberg warnings everywhere, and nations (including the US) sailed blithely ahead. It was a world with no warnings at all until late February'early March, at which time every nation in the Western world did pretty much the same thing at the same time.