What are the reasons for striking differences in the
COVID-19 infection rate among countries with similar climate, lifestyle
and location at similar latitude?
The differences are almost entirely due to the timing and effectiveness
of public health interventions. Countries that failed to control did too
little, too late, and allowed SARS-CoV-2 to rip through their
population, with catastrophic outcomes. Those that intervened early
effectively stopped the disease transmission.213