why northern European countries have fared better

The Western European countries which suffered the lowest mortality linked to Covid are those which took health restrictions fairly early and which deployed vaccination to the elderly as quickly as possible, concludes a study published on Monday.

Carried out by researchers from the Pasteur Institute and published in the journal BMC Global and Public Health, the study compared the situation in 13 Western European countries between 2020 and 2022, the peak of the epidemic of Covid. They measured excess mortality, that is to say the excess of deaths compared to those expected in normal times.

Addressing mortality factors

Studies of this type have already been carried out in a larger number of countries. But the interest here is to measure what factors may have influenced mortality in countries which are all developed and benefit from health systems with generally equivalent performance.

The authors provide two answers: “The rapid deployment of vaccines to the most vulnerable”, notably the elderly, from 2021. And, previously, with the arrival of the epidemic in spring 2020, “the early implementation non-pharmaceutical interventions”.

This last term essentially refers to the health restrictions imposed in most countries in the face of Covid, first and foremost the strict confinements at the beginning of 2020.

France average

The countries that fared best at the start of the epidemic were those that imposed their restrictions before their hospitals were overloaded: Norway, for example. Conversely, the United Kingdom, which was the longest to put in place restrictions, suffered by far the highest mortality in the first months of the epidemic. Other countries, such as France, are average.

One case, finally, appears contrasting as it has focused controversies on its management of the epidemic: Sweden, which quickly put in place light restrictions but without going as far as confinement. In the first months of the epidemic, mortality there gradually increased to clearly exceed that of its Scandinavian neighbors, Denmark and Norway. On the other hand, the latter experienced a clear increase at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, while Sweden was spared.

In the end, these three countries remain those, with Ireland, which are doing the best over the whole of 2020-2022. Conversely, Italy, then Belgium and the United Kingdom, appear to be the hardest hit.