Which Prosperous Countries Did Best?
Current statical data provide insights into the COVID-19 effects on the world’s populous. They also provide some stellar views on the effectiveness of various countries’ preparedness and the effectiveness of their Public Health Systems.
Everyone has been aghast at the sudden illnesses and deaths in many European countries where deaths exceed 400 people per million (M) population according to the data updated daily on Worldometers.info as of 15 May 2020. How did a few creditable countries like S. Korea and only a very few others shut the door so effectively on COVID-19?
Why has the response in the U.S.A. been so poor when compared to a few other prosperous countries like S. Korea, Germany and Austria? See some selected measures displayed on the freely available tables of data for all countries on Worldometers.info and summarized below.
Whatever the reason, it is perhaps time for many countries to wake up to the real needs of science and the significance of priorities in Public Health. Certainly both S. Korea and Germany have governments that value their citizens lives and safety more highly than many others, including the U.S.A. Rhetoric and boisterous disclaimers pale when compared to the facts revealed in the data.
It should not take The Pandemic to deliver the message that our leaders are not very good at leading, but perhaps that will be the impetus for its leaders to do their jobs in the public interest...first.
Perhaps many on the US’s political left have some truly good ideas on Public Health.
Table 1, Selected data from Worldometers.info
Date: May 15, 2020.
Country Total Cases Active Cases Total Deaths Deaths/ 1M pop. Tests/ 1M pop.
U.S.A. 1,470,067 1,074,576 87,704 265 32,599
S. Korea 11,018 937 937 5 14,937
Germany 175,223 15,737 7,951 95 37,585
Austria 16,109 1,010 628 70 39,040
Israel 16,589 3,736 236 31 56,258
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