For me the current safety measures and top notch medical care are far more critical than the historical infection rate. I'd rather spend the winter in a place like Japan or Malta (reported above to have the populace complying with safety measures) than Spain, Italy, France where the resumption of the cafe and bar culture is apparently more important than preventing a second wave. For US residents, the options are more limited, but Hawaii sounds like a good choice (provided its hospitals aren't overwhelmed). Definitely would not want to get COVID in Turkey, Brazil or Mexico.
Originally Posted by
the810
That graph doesn't say anything about meassures taken. Look at Spain, France, Italy, Belgium and other places with extreme restrictions in place (Belgium is currently the worst in Europe, by the way).
Agree, but the correlation chart is still very informative. What i find interesting is that Sweden and the USA ended up in roughly the same place but Sweden did not shut down its economy and quarantine the entire population. That suggests the extreme business closures were unnecessary. Conversely, Argentina, Italy and Spain implemented very strict quarantines (worse than USA) and still ended up with death rates comparable to USA (and much worse economic destruction).