I don't think the speed of spread is fundamentaly different between most countries. Unless strong measures like lock-downs are taken, we are talking about an ex

I don't think the speed of spread is fundamentaly different between most countries. Unless strong measures like lock-downs are taken, we are talking about an exponential development. Based on that, the different speeds of spread would denote different sections on the time line. That means, different time spans between the first infections in a country and the time, systematic testing and countermeasures are taken. Based on that, one can conclude that e.g. Italy was one of the first European countries being hit by a spreading infection and it took too long till systematic testing began. Likewise, in the US there was too much time between the first cases and testing, which basically just began.