Difference between Eastern and Western European countries in the fight against COVID-19

SARS-CoV-2, otherwise known as the coronavirus or Covid-19 has spread rampantly around the world with 2.79 million confirmed cases. Even though 781 thousand people have recovered, the death toll remains alarmingly high at 196 thousand as of April 25th, 2020.

However, it is evident that the highest number of recorded deaths seem to be from western countries namely, Italy, Spain, France, the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the USA. The discrepancy between the West and the East particularly when it comes to Europe is due to a myriad of factors, but below is an opinion piece on why the virus may have initially affected the Post-Soviet States differently.

1. Universal vaccination program

New scientific studies are emerging linking a possible correlation between nations where there is a universal vaccination policy, particularly against tuberculosis, also referred to as Bacillus Calmette-Guerin or BCG. The authors of the article wrote that

"Countries such as Italy, Netherlands and the USA which does not have universal vaccination policies of BCG vaccination have been affected more gravely"

compared to countries that were a part of the former Soviet Union, where universal tuberculosis vaccination policies were widely spread and long-standing. The majority of Western Europe no longer has a universal vaccination program or has BCG vaccine recommendations for risk groups only.

It is also quite intriguing to note that the Robert Koch Institute's national census suggests that the eastern states of Germany, which were part of the USSR have much lower numbers of Covid-19 cases per 100 thousand people compared to the other states. Whether it is correlation or causality BCG vaccine serve broad protection against respiratory infections. 

2. Younger population

Studies on the ageing population in Europe show that Western Europe has the highest number of people over 65 and in Italy, almost a quarter of the population is comprised of seniors. Therefore, the median age of a country's population can shape the severity of the impact of the new coronavirus. Furthermore, a high proportion of community outbreaks have been associated with nursing and aged care homes and due to demographic differences, Eastern Europe has a significantly low number of aged care homes compared to the West.

3. Centralised System

Even though a centralised system is far from perfect under circumstances where there is no ongoing pandemic or economic crisis, the current epidemic has demonstrated possible advantages of such government systems especially when it comes to quick responses and decision making.

For example, the Prime Minister of Japan indicated the boost in the production of an antiviral drug Favipiravir demonstrated excellent results in China. Several Eastern European countries, including Russia, immediately allowed the import of the drug which is mostly used to treat influenza and goes by the trade name Avigan. However, decentralised governments had to go over legislative and regulatory hurdles in order to bring the potentially helpful drug. The FDA is still debating the long-term effects of the drug. Meanwhile, Italian ministers were labelled racist on their proposed travel ban on China, but ironically one of China's closest allies, North Korea was first to close its borders to China, and soon after Post-Soviet countries followed, quickly closing their borders as fast as through a single phone call. Moreover, in the USA there are rallies where people can be observed holding the sign, "I would rather live free than safe" and it really makes you question is a more lenient and liberal approach or a strict and stringent strategy the best move towards the handling of this virus.

4. Hospital system

The hospital system plays a crucial role in a nation's preparedness for a pandemic and Western and Eastern Europe has completely different public healthcare system. If you take the UK for example, when a person feels unwell they rarely go straight to the hospital, instead, they get referred to a GP and it seems that there is a shortage of large hospitals capable of handling a big number of patients at once. However, Eastern European countries historically had public hospital systems capable of handling numerous patients at once and the number of hospital beds available may prevent the hospital system from collapsing and many of the state-owned hospitals have special units, particularly for patients with viral infections.

To conclude, the worldwide peak of this pandemic is yet to arrive and it is incredibly hard to pinpoint what is right or wrong when it comes to social restrictions, treatment medications and even government systems. However, what is clear is that the impact of the coronavirus will be felt whether you are in the West or the East and it is imperative to support global collaboration in the fight against Covid-19. Ultimately, it seems that time will tell the impact of various decisions made to grapple with this epidemic.

References

Miller, A., Reandelar, M.J., Fasciglione, K., Roumenova, V., Li, Y. and Otazu, G.H., 2020. Correlation between universal BCG vaccination policy and reduced morbidity and mortality for COVID-19: an epidemiological study. medRxiv.

Popic, T. and Schneider, S.M., 2018. An East–West comparison of healthcare evaluations in Europe: Do institutions matter?. Journal of European Social Policy, 28(5), pp.517-534.

Rki.de. 2020. RKI - Homepage. [online] Available at: <https://www.rki.de/EN/Home/homepage_node.html> [Accessed 25 April 2020].