Opinion: Stronger democracies have seen fewer excess deaths during COVID

Dr Vageesh Jain Writing in The Conversation, Dr Vageesh Jain (UCL Institute for Global Health) looks at the connection between a country's democratic strength and the success of it's response to Covid-19. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become clear that an effective response to an emergency of this nature goes beyond the health system. While strengthening health infrastructure such as surveillance, testing and hospitals is key, we've also seen the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions like face masks, school closures and lockdowns. Some of the most important public health interventions, such as income protection schemes, have not come from the health sector at all. So to prepare for and respond to pandemics, countries must be able to strengthen collaboration and investment across the whole of government, and engage all sections of society. To better understand the role of governance in pandemic response, we designed a study to investigate the link between the strength of democratic governance and excess death rates across countries. We found that, generally, countries with stronger democratic governance have seen fewer excess deaths during the pandemic.