This is a very interesting chart and analysis indeed. The negative correlation is, of course, expected but the scatter is surprisingly huge. The countries in the bottom left are in the spotlight here; the worst of all by far seems to be Greece.>
https://twitter.com/GreekAnalyst/status/1351113323681640451
The authors give two valid points: "Possible explanations include governments’ preference for directing emergency funds to support the rest of the crisis-hit economy and of course the possibility that in some of these countries the intensity of the pandemic was relatively weak.">
In the case of Greece, emergency funds were indeed provided to other sectors, but it was controversial as >E20mln were given to mainstream media who were already, by law, mandated to broadcast public health campaigns for free & media is a sector not terribly affected by WFH etc.>
(Not to mention that the list of recipients of this funding was a scandal on its own by cherry-picking media favourable to gov't..) Also noting that those countries are indeed mostly in South Europe, I can't help but comment that this is also the legacy of a decade of austerity.>
Austerity is basically hard-wired in the country's mindset and this is why increase in military expenditure must be taken with a pinch of salt (different discussion.) Another broader reason for GR's pitiful position in that chart is, of course, incompetence.>
Though it had no issue taking swift decisions that do not require organisation, mid/long-term planning such as lockdown, or punitive measures that overly rely on police like hefty fines or ban on outdoor swimming, it struggled to meaningfully boost the Greek NHS.>
Having said that, going back to the chart, this is clearly a complicated matter to draw conclusions based on regressions, because we can see that, for example, Czechia, even though it started from a good position of healthcare $ as %GDP *and* increased healthcare $ significantly>
, still was a disaster. Also Sweden is a curious case. Having the maximum Healthcare $/%GDP doesn't mean much if you still take wrong key decisions./>
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