That’s my point, too, the inevitable will come, at one point or another. Countries like Thailand or Vietnam used to be relatively Covid-free until a few months ago and were given as positive examples.

Vaccines are definitely making a difference at this point. But I think we'll find, to the degree we can make sense of a lot of noisy data, that a lot of what people ascribed to cultural, behavioral, and political differences based on their own leanings will be seen as largely happenstance.

There is a vaccination now. So to the degree that some locations were able to get through the pre-vaccine timeline, presumably (assuming people get vaccinated there) they'll end up with better--although not perfect--outcomes overall.

It does make a huge difference to keep it out until the population could be vaccinated. No casualties, no sick. And that despite of no masks or other precautions.