Australian here. The reasons are quite simple from our perspective: socialised health care, closing international and state borders where required, having leade

Australian here. The reasons are quite simple from our perspective: socialised health care, closing international and state borders where required, having leadership that provides consistent and sensible advice, and accepting that along with rights we have responsibilities. In countries that have had serious COVID issues such as the UK and USA we see little to none of the above. As an example there was a discussion I watched where someone from California went for a road trip to neighbouring states despite the local authorities asking interstate visitors to stay away. When challenged about visiting states asking people to stay away, their reply was basically, "I don't believe I'm doing anything wrong, and you can't legally stop me." This attitude was prevalent from the top down. One big issue in the USA is the number of people who simply can't afford to stay home from work, and whose multiple jobs require being present in a building with lots of visitors. In Australia we've had a number of "flare ups" where people involved in the quarantine program have ended up with COVID and spread it to the community because they are the lowest paid workers in the country and need three jobs to keep food on the table (or as a security guard they had multiple shifts moving between sites). As much of a joke as our hotel quarantine has been, it's at least something we can do to limit the community transmission of COVID-19. There's nothing magical about Asia/Oceania countries managing COVID well. You just have to accept that COVID-19 is real, the medical authorities what they're talking about, and personal liberties sometimes need to be curtailed for the benefit of everyone. At the personal level, wear a mask in public, keep your hands clean, avoid unnecessary travel, stay away from people. Sometimes you have to exercise your responsibilities instead of your rights. At the corporate/national level, pay (poor) people to stay home, shut borders where required to prevent community transmission. Lock down neighbourhoods with high community transmission. Make sure testing is free and widely available. If you believe "the economy" is more important than the people, you're not going to handle pandemics particularly well.