The influence of national policy characteristics on COVID-19 containment policies: a comparative analysis

This article discusses the correlation between national policy characteristics and the success in “flattening the curve” of infection of the COVID-19 virus, which is a generally acknowledged measure to contain the worst medical outcomes of a pandemic. While individual cases require careful and granular analysis to properly unpack, the article finds that the best correlation is found when looking at the pattern of choice related to either proactive or reactive approaches to the implementation of containment measures. This is especially evident for countries that have either very low or very high infection rates per million persons. For intermediate rates we find that a variety of institutional, political, and procedural variables intervene in the process.