Health, Wealth and the Double Paradox of COVID-19 Mortality in Low-Income Countries
9 Pages Posted: 2 Mar 2021 Last revised: 3 Mar 2021
Date Written: February 8, 2021
Abstract
COVID-19 mortality has remained low in the poorest countries, exposing the fragile link between prosperity and health. Emerging evidence suggests SARS-CoV-2 did spread widely in low-income countries, but infections were largely asymptomatic. We suggest the demographic transition, the epidemiological transition and the hygiene hypothesis as three useful frameworks to understand the paradoxical relation between human health and prosperity during the pandemic.
Keywords: COVID-19, low-income countries, demographic transition, epidemiological transition, hygiene hypothesis
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
De Weerdt, Joachim and Van Damme, Wim, Health, Wealth and the Double Paradox of COVID-19 Mortality in Low-Income Countries (February 8, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3793427 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3793427
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