Australia was a special case. It became a victim of its own success, because it managed to avoid COVID so thoroughly and so long that there was no chance to det

Australia was a special case. It became a victim of its own success, because it managed to avoid COVID so thoroughly and so long that there was no chance to determine which measures were cost-effective and which weren't. China is still in a similar situation. In more interconnected parts of the world, the first waves were often really bad. Nobody really knew how to mitigate the spread, except by crude lockdowns. Hospitals became overcrowded and many people died, because doctors didn't know what was the exact problem and how to treat it. People also died from other preventable causes, because there was no one left to treat them. The economy tanked, and not simply due to the lockdowns but also because of the disease itself and the voluntary actions people took. Facilities were shut down, because too many people were sick at the same time. The demand for some products and services crashed, because (for example) people started working from home. At the same time, there were shortages because the demand for other things increased but there was no way to scale up the production quickly enough. Things started getting better by mid-2020. There was a better understanding of what worked and what didn't, what was cost-effective and what wasn't, and what was possible within the existing legal framework and what wasn't. People also started adjusting to the new normal instead of being afraid of the unknown. Different jurisdictions around the world made different choices based on their specific circumstances and the values of those in charge.