[tiles]

That's what confuses me. How particularly is the UK so different from the rest of Europe or the globe even? I get that how the UK views itself may give support for this strategy, and it agrees with how I view UK society, but why only in this location is national identity the defining factor in pandemic response?

[chrisseaton]

The UK is a funny combination of collectivism and individualism. The NHS, BBC, the Blitz spirit, but also small-c-conservatism, almost always slightly-right-of-centre governments, the Monarchy. It's culturally mid-Atlantic - somewhere between the European way and the way in the United States. And that's pretty much how they're responding to this crisis, isn't it?

[dmix]

The UK already has more aggressive policies than Canada and our PM is in isolation. The UK is easily par for the course. It really only got very serious yesterday when numbers doubled (which we saw with the US reacting to that news).

The UK government has also completely denied the “herd immunity” thing is part of any active policy. But that hasn’t slowed down social media... or HN for that matter.

[xorcist]

Is it really that different? The actions and motivations seems very much like Finland and Sweden, for example, in as much as they stage their response and focus on keeping the society running until data suggests otherwise.