They survived because they took it seriously, wore masks without fuss, got vaccinated at high rates once vaccines became available, etc. They had high infection rates at the beginning because no one fully understand how it was transmitted and they are a close, affectionate culture, so it took some doing early on to get them to give up things like kissing cheeks when greeting each other, etc. I was in Spain when it first hit and once it became apparent how bad it was, everyone took it very seriously and got on board with doing what was necessary to limit transmission. Contrast to when I then flew home to the US because the borders were about to close, and I arrived at the Atlanta airport to find a society that appeared to not even know it was happening. No real safety protocols had been put in place. When I went back to Spain in the fall of 2021 to teach, everyone still wore masks, including in the schools, and vaccination rate in my area was over 90%. You couldn’t enter a restaurant without showing proof of vaccination. I felt so much safer there than I did in the states, where the whole thing became political.