Trust in Power
The pandemic results are a terrible way of comparing countries, because of the myriad of factors involved – timeline, proximity, cultures of hugs and kisses (or not), old age, obesity, smoking, conditioning from prior virus outbreaks and how well we do what we are told.
My gut feeling is that how much we trust/respect/fear our leaders is a factor.
NZ, despite their recent weird second wave, was the poster child of non-Asian COVID success, and their leader Jacinda Ardern is famed for her connection with the people. Meanwhile the “populist” leaders, who people like me would say aren’t leaders, but more people who used smoke and mirrors to achieve power, have had the worst results – UK, US, Brazil, Russia.
Asian countries have done well, and they have a culture, more so than other regions, of doing what they are told, by authorities, regardless of whether they are loved leaders or not.
In the US, in every situation, the nation is divided, along political lines. Which means regardless of who is in power, when told what to do, half of them will feel they shouldn’t. That is not helpful in a pandemic.