The virus is having its way regardless of what measures many countries seem to put in place - look at many of the so-called early good performers now.
You have a very good point about the starting point in each country being important; and this has to be considered alongside the speed at which different countries have been able to implement testing. Some countries with more labs and flexible, market driven healthcare systems seem to have done better on testing. The other big factors in rates of spread and death rates are things like:
-population density, hub airports, and over-crowded housing such as in many of Europe's major cities and more widely in the very densely populated UK
-cultural factors such as how tactile a nation is and/or where their elderly reside such as in Italy or Spain
-widespread use of illegal labour in poor working conditions where such practices are considered too difficult/sensitive a topic to discuss e.g. in the UK.
We have to learn to live with this for the foreseeable but we cannot destroy our economies in the process. If we do the aftermath of the pandemic will have much more severe consequences.
