Our Covid Response the Best of a Bad Year

Covid may have made 2020 a year to forget, but amid the gloom there were plenty of positive moments, with countries like New Zealand and led by women having “systematically and significantly better” Covid-19 outcomes during the first wave of the pandemic, locking down earlier and suffering half as many deaths on average as those led by men. Jon Henley reports of the best of a bad situation for The Guardian.

“An analysis of 194 countries by two academics, Supriya Garikipati, of Liverpool University, and Reading University’s Uma Kambhampati, suggested the difference ‘may be explained by the proactive and coordinated policy responses’ adopted by female leaders such as Germany’s Angela Merkel, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen and Finland’s Sanna Marin,” Henley writes for the UK newspaper.

“The study examined policy responses and Covid-19 cases and deaths until 19 May, adjusting for variables such as GDP, total population, population density and proportion of elderly residents as well as annual health spending per head and level of gender equality. ‘When women-led countries are compared to countries similar to them along a range of characteristics, they have performed better, experiencing fewer cases as well as fewer deaths,’ Garikipati said.”

Original article by Jon Henley, The Guardian, December 31, 2020.

Photo by Government House.