COVID-19: facts and failures, a tale of two worlds
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COMMENTARY
COVID‑19: facts and failures, a tale of two worlds Sergio Alejandro Gómez‑Ochoa1 · Oscar H. Franco2 Received: 24 October 2020 / Accepted: 1 November 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
The new coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in a major public health crisis and a colossal political and communication challenge for governments, media, and citizens around the world [1]. From the beginning of the pandemic, the generalized lack of knowledge about this new disease generated an enormous debate across countries regarding the optimal preventive strategies and policies to mitigate its spread [2]. The truth is that even today, after almost a year from the first COVID-19 case report, critical aspects of the disease are still unknown; however, the negative impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has driven the attention of the world towards the governments and institutions, looking for answers to the question: “Could we have done it better?” [3]. In this context, several studies assessing the excess deaths during the last months compared to previous years have shown that despite the preventive measures taken, COVID-19 has left a deadly footprint in most regions worldwide [4]. However, this mark has not been the same for all countries, and these differences are being currently analyzed to comprehend, which interventions seemed to be successful and which failed its purpose [5, 6]. In this commentary, we will discuss the scenarios of two different countries: Denmark and the United States, by analyzing the results from two studies recently published in the European Journal of Epidemiology [7, 8], highlighting the different approaches taken to manage the pandemic by the two governments, and subsequently, the results so far. Although how the disease takes place and spreads depends largely in the nature of the disease as well as the healthcare system, population characteristics and policies formulated, it’s been commonly reported that around 20% * Oscar H. Franco [email protected] 1
Public Health and Epidemiological Studies Group, Cardiovascular Foundation of Colombia, Floridablanca, Colombia
Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), University of Bern, Mittelstrasse 43, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
2
of all cases tend to require hospitalization, while 5–10% of the cases might require intensive care treatment [9]. To delay the spread of the disease and avoid collapse of the healthcare systems, governments have been obliged to implement lockdowns. By mid-April 2020, almost half of the world’s population was facing confinement due to the uncontrollable evolution of the pandemic [10, 11]. However, alongside the direct impact of the virus, lockdowns pose a critical challenge for populations mental health and could have severely harmed the nations’ economies, causing, for example, a fall of the United Kingdom’s GDP by 20.4% in April 2020 and an increase in the United States (U.S.) unemployment rate of around 200% [12, 13]. This cocktail of unfortu
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