Public health in question: learning from the German experience
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Faced with the Coronavirus epidemic, the gap between France and Germany is such that at the end of December there were 958 deaths per million inhabitants in France against 389 in Germany, while the two countries have levels of expenditures and comparable health institutions. What makes the difference is the weight of public health and the unequal institutional capacity of the two countries to implement on a large scale the well-known principles of epidemic management. The German experience suggests a possible way to try to get out of the French non-decision.
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If we stick to the first wave of the epidemic, there is no doubt that Germany has fared better than France from this ordeal. Beginning of November we were counting 136 deaths per million inhabitants in Germany against 600 in France. The number of deaths attributable to the pandemic has been lower, the overload on intensive hospital care has been avoided according to the OECD. If the second wave hits Germany much harder, the gap between the two countries remains very large since at the end of December there were 958 deaths per million inhabitants in France against 389 in Germany. The comparison with France is all the more interesting as these two countries have comparable spending levels and health institutions.
Politician, Honorary Research Director at the CNRS
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