One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that policy in relation to care homes is likely to have been a factor which made things significantly worse in the UK. Pat

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that policy in relation to care homes is likely to have been a factor which made things significantly worse in the UK. Patients were deliberately moved out of hospitals into care homes without tests for SARS-CoV-2 infection, in order to free up hospital beds, and in so doing gave the virus to other residents of those homes. Our care home sector was also more vulnerable than most because it (a) consists of individual care homes which are relatively large and (b) is staffed in large part by agency staff who work in multiple homes. We're not the only country or region which made this mistake of course and this wasn't the only mistake made but the surprising thing is how long it took for the government to recognise and correct this. Part of that is probably human nature ("we have a plan, stick to the plan"), but I suspect part of it is old-fashioned civil service incompetence too (the same incompetence which led to this being the plan to start with).