Fascinating. The @LowyInstitute has crunched COVID-19 data and come up with a list of the countries which have tackled the pandemic most effectively. Top of the list? New Zealand. Followed by Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand. Australia also near the top - it's been ranked 8th 1/

The UK is ranked 66th, while Indonesia (85th) and India (86th) both scored poorly. The US languishes near the bottom of the table, ranked 94th of 98 countries. Brazil is at the very bottom 2/

Lowy hasn't included China in its list, citing a lack of publicly available testing data. You can see the interactive here 3/ https://interactives.lowyinstitute.org/features/covid-performance/#methodology

So what determines success? One the authors, Lowy's @HerveLemahieu says there are no simple answers here. But size does seem to matter - “countries with populations fewer than 10 million people proved more agile, on average, than the majority of their larger counterparts" 4/

Have authoritarian regimes managed the crisis more effectively than democracies? Not really, says @HerveLemahieu The leading group includes liberal democracies (NZ) as well as authoritarian countries (Vietnam) as well as hybrid regimes 5/

In brief- countries with "smaller populations, more cohesive societies and more capable institutions" tended to perform more strongly 6/

How about wealth? Lowy says for much of 2020 more prosperous countries typically managed the outbreak more effectively than poorer countries. But they effectively lost their lead by the end of 2020 as infections surged in places like Europe and North America 7/

Still, Lowy predicts that will likely change as vaccines roll out. @HerveLemahieu- “with the uneven distribution and hoarding of vaccines we may well see rich countries get a decisive upper hand in crisis recovery efforts. The developing world will fall further behind.” 8/