Pandemic casualties reached 22 million globally, with 46% in Asia and 83% in developing countries. As of last week, COVID remained the 3rd leading global cause of death.

Call it over but that’s an awful lot of people who continue to die daily. 

1/ The pandemic has been a tragic tale of inequality and neglect. Inequality of impact and neglect in terms of solutions.

Developing nations shouldered heavy burdens, yet their struggles largely went unnoticed.

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pandem-ic.com/one-world-two-…

A global health mystery? The pandemic did not spare developing nations with youthful populations. Except for the lowest-income countries, excess mortality rates have been surprisingly similar across country income groups.

pandem-ic.com/the-global-pic… Taking this to the country level, here's a global snapshot of the 60+ elderly population share. Notice how much lower, on average, these shares are in the developing world (which comprises upper-middle, lower-middle and low income countries).

Not many may realize, but 45% of global excess mortality during COVID-19 happened in Asia

That's 2.5x what's officially reported

But Asia is a continent of extreme contrasts as East Asia & Pacific (EAP) massively overperformed & South Asia (SAR) massively underperformed

1/ South Asia (SAR) claims 31% of global excess mortality - 3.4x the share in official COVID-19 mortality

East Asia & Pacific (EAP) claims 14% - 1.6x the official share

These numbers are completely surprising

Why?

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What our unvaccinated world looks like

Today 2.3 billion people are completely unvaccinated against COVID

Most of them live in the low and lower-middle income countries of Africa and Southern Asia

But there’s one important difference between these two parts of the world

1/ Yes, Africa and Southern Asia make up the bulk of the world’s unvaccinated in absolute terms (number of people)

But in relative terms (per capita rates) Southern Asia and Asia as a whole are far better vaccinated

However, that’s primary vaccination…

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