The first group of determinants comprises characteristics of individuals and communities that make them vulnerable or resilient to the spread and adverse health consequences of infection and those of the restrictions.
These include baseline demography and health; social networks and inequalities; employment status and occupation; and environmental features, such as transport and housing.
The risk of death from COVID-19 increases with age, with social and material deprivation and in the presence of long-term conditions such as obesity, diabetes and vascular and kidney diseases. Most countries in our analysis have an aging population, and none stands out as particularly older or younger than the others. For example, the share of the population that is older than 65 years ranges from 16% in Australia and New Zealand to 23% in Italy, but this share weakly correlated with excess mortality (correlation coefficient, 0.25) (Extended Data Table 4). Obesity and associated morbidities are higher in the United Kingdom, which experienced one of the highest effects, than in other European countries in our analysis27,28,29. But New Zealand and Australia, which had no detectable excess deaths, have an even higher prevalence of obesity than the United Kingdom, whereas Belgium, Italy and Spain, which have lower prevalence, also experienced large effects.
Similarly, although reported multi-morbidity varies across Europe30, it is not correlated with excess mortality: Sweden and Denmark, which had different magnitudes of excess deaths, have low levels of multi-morbidity; Hungary, Spain and Italy, which also span the entire range of excess mortality, have some of the highest. Finally, although the United Kingdom has higher relative poverty than countries such as Norway, Denmark and Finland31, excess deaths were higher in Sweden (similar relative poverty to Denmark and Finland) than in New Zealand (similar relative poverty to the United Kingdom). These findings suggest that these contextual factors, although important, are individually insufficient to lead to the massive cross-country variation in mortality observed here.
Other important population characteristics lack consistent data across countries and, hence, remain unexplored. For example, in some countries, regional outbreaks have started among low-wage workers in poor working conditions, such as garment factories and food processing plants. The role of overcrowded social housing complexes and public transportation (and, more generally, frequency, routes and means of mobility) in the extent and geographical distribution of transmission is also unknown32.
The second determinant of mortality toll of the pandemic is the policy and public health response, which has varied vastly across countries in timing, character and extent33.
The timing of the lockdown in relation to when initial infections occurred34 affects the peak number of people who are infected, which drives both the number of deaths from COVID-19 and the pressure on the healthcare system that displaces routine care for other diseases.
The stringency of the lockdown, together with the extent and effectiveness of testing, contract tracing and isolation, determines how long it takes for the number of cases to return to low levels and can therefore account for some of the variations in the intensity and duration of excess deaths observed here (Extended Data Table 4).
Among the countries analyzed here, Bulgaria, New Zealand, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, Norway and Finland acted early in terms of putting in place various movement restrictions or lockdowns33,35 and kept the number of cases to such low levels that they could identify and isolate cases and their contacts through their existing public health systems. Austria and Denmark experienced an early rise in the number of cases but enacted lockdowns soon after and used effective testing, contact tracing and isolation to contain the epidemic and its mortality effect. At the other extreme, Italy, which was the initial European epicenter of the pandemic, Spain, the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom put lockdown measures in place only after the number of cases and deaths had risen to such levels that the epidemic continued for weeks. For example, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France and the Netherlands introduced lockdowns after a larger number of cases had been detected and after a longer period since the first few COVID-19 deaths occurred than New Zealand and other countries in Europe, such as Denmark (Extended Data Table 4)33,34,36.
Sweden, the only country that did not put in place a mandatory lockdown and used only voluntary social distancing measures, had one of the longest durations of excess mortality. Extensive (and, at the extreme, universal) testing and effective contact tracing and isolation of cases and their contacts can also minimize transmission even without a lockdown37.
Countries also varied in how extensively they conducted community testing, contact tracing and isolation of cases and their contacts at each stage of the pandemic, with Austria, Denmark, Finland, New Zealand and Norway introducing effective systems and Belgium, Spain, France and the United Kingdom being more limited in community testing and/or contact tracing for many months33, with some, like the United Kingdom, Spain and France, still not having a system that is able to respond to the dynamic geographical, demographic and social nature of the epidemic38,39,40.
Third, the preparedness and resilience of the public health infrastructure not only influence how well the spread of infection is controlled but also influence the choice of policy, as decision-makers assess what they think is possible with existing capacity41.
Denmark and Austria (as well as Germany, for which data were not available for our analysis) were able to scale up testing rapidly because they had extensive and well-coordinated laboratory networks and public health infrastructure in place. Some central European countries had existing contact tracing infrastructure, a legacy of their more recent experience with infectious diseases such as tuberculosis.
Others had more limited capacity but were able to scale it up rapidly based on the existing public health structures, such as New Zealand’s contact tracing system. In contrast, the United Kingdom and Spain had limited testing capacity (or ability to use capacity in non-governmental labs) and contact tracing systems, early in the pandemic. As above, their testing, contact tracing and ability to persuade and support people to isolate when necessary are still not effective42,38,39,40.
Countries also varied substantially in terms of how their healthcare system continued to provide life-saving services: those countries that had less capacity and were less able to rapidly enhance capacity, partly related to uneven health and social care spending, responded less effectively to healthcare needs. Notably, per capita spending is lower in the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain than in Austria, Norway, Sweden and Denmark43. One effect of financing variation is on the number of hospital beds, which, on a per capita basis in Austria, is nearly three times that of the United Kingdom44. Where hospital beds are more limited—for example, in the United Kingdom, Spain and Hungary45—concerns about breeching capacity might have led to delaying admission of patients with COVID-19 and other patients until their health deteriorated and to early discharge of patients to long-term care facilities (care homes) often without systematic testing.
The spread of infection within and between hospitals and care homes, and between them and the community, is itself an important determinant of infections and deaths in both the vulnerable groups and the general population46,47. Where infection rates were high and care homes were not appropriately safeguarded—namely in Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, France and Sweden—a large number of care home residents died from confirmed or probable COVID-1946. The initial seeding through discharge of infected patients to care homes was compounded by lack of testing and protective equipment for staff and residents and, especially in privately run care homes, regular movement of (temporary) staff across facilities48. Finally, some of the variations in excess deaths might be due to variation in community-based and primary care that affected preventive and pre-hospital care for patients with COVID-19 as well as for patients with other conditions.
Αυτά φαντάζουν ως ένα συμπαγές σετ παραγόντων, ικανών να αναλύσουν την πανδημία σε έναν ρεαλιστικό βαθμό.
Θυμίζω ότι εδώ μέσα είδαμε απίστευτα πράγματα, με τυχαίους ημιμαθείς να αρπακολλιάζουν απλά νεκρούς/εκατομμύριο και να τους συναρτούν με ένα μόνο infection control measure, γιατί έτσι.