Extract
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak has disrupted social and economic life over large parts of the world [1]. The countermeasures designed and enforced by organisations and governments in order to contain the pandemic have had debated impact on its spread, but especially on societal structure and economic output [2]. In a fashion only precedented by war, an infectious pandemic challenges vulnerabilities of our societal structure, economic activity and healthcare [3]. While the battle for the discovery of the disease's origins, pathogenesis and cure is ongoing, a deeper understanding of its pattern of spread is sought [4]. Geographic patterns of disease burden are essential in understanding our societal and biological vulnerabilities to disease, as well as the progress of our worldwide battle against disease [5]. To this end, the way the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has affected different countries could provide valuable clues to the nature of the disease, as well as our societal and economic weaknesses that propagate it.
Abstract
Geographic disease patterns of the SARS-CoV-2 and the H1N1 influenza pandemics are cross-examined with socioeconomic indices, revealing that the two outbreaks are fundamentally different and that SARS-CoV-2 spread is linked with economic output https://bit.ly/3fqkiyp
Acknowledgements
The authors extend their warm thanks to the World Health Organization for the creation and maintenance of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation dashboard (https://who.sprinklr.com/) that made this study possible, as well as the editors and reviewers of the European Respiratory Journal for their constructive comments on this report. G.T. Stathopoulos thanks his dear friend Theodoros Belezonis for insightful discussions that prompted this investigation.
Footnotes
Data availability: All raw data and analysis results are available upon request to the corresponding author in *.xlsx and *.pzfx formats and as R* scripts.
Author contributions: J.C. Kaiser provided the multivariate data analysis and modelling. G.T. Stathopoulos collected and descriptively analysed the data, is the guarantor of the study's integrity, wrote the manuscript, and designed the final version of the figure.
Conflict of interest: J.C. Kaiser has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: G.T. Stathopoulos has nothing to disclose.
- Received April 25, 2020.
- Accepted July 4, 2020.
- Copyright ©ERS 2020
This version is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licence 4.0.