The difference is that they (China/Korea/Taiwan/&c...) learned their lesson the first time around, and had the policies, systems, and general training in place

The difference is that they (China/Korea/Taiwan/&c...) learned their lesson the first time around, and had the policies, systems, and general training in place to stop this early. My suspicion is that the reaction of a US/EU/ect... to the 'next' pandemic will be the same regardless of how bad this one turns out, simply because they will have the time (as in, years & decades) to get their policy responses in order.