Contrasting "old" predictions with reality is always a learning experience.
This ranking was made a year before an actual pandemic and they had more misses than hits, and understanding why may help with other predictions about the future. At least the ones involving human actions.
Human action is the key. The US was very well prepared, but when the federal government and many state governments weren't interested in stopping the virus of course being prepared doesn't help.
Same with the UK: the response from their scientific community has been absolutely fantastic. But when Boris Johnson simply didn't want to lock down and couldn't make up his mind until too late that didn't count for much. Also he fucked up the test-trace-isolate system for ideological reasons.
Sweden + Denmark were rated as more prepared than Norway, which could well be true, but Sweden chose the UK approach (for no sane reason) and has paid the price.
In all of these cases the problem is not lack of ability to handle the pandemic, but a political lack of will to do it.
This ranking was made a year before an actual pandemic and they had more misses than hits, and understanding why may help with other predictions about the future. At least the ones involving human actions.