A Cross-Country Analysis of the Determinants of Covid-19 Fatalities

My coauthor (Hideki Toya) and I recently posted a working paper that offers an examination of the factors that explain differences across countries in COVID-19 infections and fatalities over the past year. Our analysis explains a high proportion of variation in both infections and fatalities across more than 150 countries. We find that high-income countries and countries with older populations have more infections and fatalities. The high-income result is unusual….epidemics/outbreaks are typically far more common in low-income countries were sanitation, access to clean water, etc. are a challenge. Island countries and countries that restricted international travel also had fewer infections and fatalities. Recommended (but not mandatory) lockdowns were associated with fewer infections. However, we find little evidence that any type of lockdown reduced fatalities…if anything the opposite was the case for mandatory nationwide lockdowns. Perhaps the two most important findings are: 1) Countries that relied on PCR testing had more infections but not more fatalities. This result is consistent with evidence that PCR testing generates a high rate of false positives, resulting in more recorded infections but not more fatalities; and 2) access to hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) substantially reduced fatalities. (Note: U.S. health authorities have known about the effectiveness of HCQ for the treatment of coronavirus since at least 2005.) The estimates suggest that if the U.S. had made HCQ widely available early on, 80,000 to 100,000 lives could have been saved. While the paper has been submitted to a journal, it is not yet peer reviewed. You can access the paper here:

https://www.cesifo.org/en/publikationen/2021/working-paper/cross-country-analysis-determinants-covid-19-fatalities.

Published by markskidmore

Mark Skidmore is Professor of Economics at Michigan State University where he holds the Morris Chair in State and Local Government Finance and Policy. His research focuses on topics in public finance, regional economics, and the economics of natural disasters. Mark created the Lighthouse Economics website and blog to share economic research and information relevant for navigating tumultuous times.

25 thoughts on “A Cross-Country Analysis of the Determinants of Covid-19 Fatalities

  1. Covid is steadily being revealed as the greatest and greediest crime against humanity not only ever perpetrated against humanity but previously even imaginable by humanity as something that could and would have been inflicted upon it. We are in the grips of the most diabolical and total evil that has ever bestridden this planet. And yet the majority of the victims still have no clue, as tens of millions dutifully stand in line to take their injections. Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, Budesonide, vitamin D, zinc and other proven and effective therapeutics were officially trashed by the cabalists who hatched this gigantic, anti-humanitarian, FOR PROFIT fraud because it would have stopped the fake “vaccines” in their tracks. Emergency Use Authorization for an untested, non-trialed “vaccine” is only permitted if no other treatments exist. Therefore, in a totally coordinated propaganda campaign of sheer, utter, endlessly repeated lies and smears, plus the censoring of experts worldwide who dared to speak facts and truth, all effective therapeutics were pilloried and denegrated. So at the lowest level, this was all about big money for Big Pharma and the sycophantic cling-ons it bribes, such as politicians throughout the world and “patent” partners and opportunists such as Fauci. It would be wonderful if this were only about greed, but it is not. This is about the control and perpetual enslavement of humanity, or what is left of it as the injected poisons do their dirty work and kill who knows how many millions it will end up being, by a cadre of satanist destroyers so evil and insane that satan himself must ask in growing horror, “What have I created? What have I done?” I just listened to an interesting podcast comparing Fascism (and particularly the Mengele chapter of it, with his “medical” experiments on helpless prisoners, including children) to Faucism, brought to us by our new Mengele, the mainstream media man-god, Fauci. The comparison was chillingly perfect. (I believe the presentation can be found on Brighteon dot com. It was done by Mike Adams.) If people numbering in the tens of millions do not immediately stand up for themselves and reject the evil, satanic agenda now being crammed down their throats, they can kiss their futures goodbye. It might already be too late. For example, the epitome of political evil, the UK, headed by one of the worst traitors and turncoats in human history, Boris Johnson, is on the cusp of issuing (and soon mandating) “vaccine” passports. For any nation, that is the beginning of the end for its citizens, because in time, and not much of it, people will not be able to buy food unless they have been injected by the satanists’ poisons. Pick your poison, or more accurately, death: you can starve, or be human-altered and gene-mutated, for profit and totalitarian control, by and in the glorious image not of God, but the new, Dear Supreme Leader gods, Big Pharma, Fauci, Schwab and Gates, all raised up in their gilded, gaudy thrones by their sickening perfumers and puffers.

    1. Terry, I am familiar with this question. However, I personally know people who have gotten very sick from something that include symptoms like losing taste. So I keep watching and trying to make sense of it.

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