Between January and March 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic broke out in Europe and around the world. There are still many unanswered questions about the origin of the virus, the timing of its appearance and progression, and why some countries or regions, like northern Italy, were so rapidly and unexpectedly overwhelmed while others seemed to be relatively or entirely spared, at least during the first wave. In retrospect, at least three elements stand out in an otherwise still blurred picture:

• 1. Because the virus led to a high number of asymptomatic cases, it circulated under cover and had been around for some time when it was discovered.

• 2. The Western world and particularly Western Europe were hit much harder and earlier than other regions (apart from China) during this first sequence, but these countries had not been exposed to an epidemic risk of this magnitude and brutality for quite some time.

• 3. Even though each country had specific pandemic plans and preparations, heavily constraining lockdown policies rapidly became a standard response throughout Europe, with some variation in intensity.

Other parts of the world moved into the state of pandemic at different paces and with various strategies to adjust to the new threat. Yet the sum of all the national policies and the clear lack of coordination also contributed to the overall impact of the pandemic (Greer et al, 2020). Closing borders, shutting down airports, and cloistering people at home provoked a cascade of consequences of a magnitude rarely seen in modern times. In his book Fighting the First Wave, historian Peter Baldwin identified three broad families of countries according to the way they responded to the virus: ‘targeted quarantiners’ strictly tested, traced and isolated the sick; the ‘ostrich family’ favoured a handsoff approach; and another group of countries (potentially the largest) went into some form of national lockdown (Baldwin, 2021, p 4). There is obviously much more to this situation than meets the eye, as some countries were spared during the first wave or had histories of epidemic and other risks that made them more accustomed to extraordinary circumstances of this sort. Indeed, demography, the price attached to human life and the relationship to vulnerability or death vary greatly across the world.