Why Does the Pandemic Seem to Be Hitting Some Countries Harder Than Others?

Mobarak, who grew up in Bangladesh (a hundred and sixty-three million people; eighty-three hundred reported COVID-19 deaths, or 3.5 per cent of America’s, on a per-capita basis), studies populations and health. There are trade-offs battling trade-offs: are the risks greater for a younger country with a larger family size but with infrequent social contacts or for an older country with a smaller family size but frequent contacts? Pakistan, with a population of two hundred and twenty million, was predicted to have as many as six hundred and fifty thousand deaths; it has so far reported twelve thousand.