Today there are two realities in Europe's management of the VIDOC crisis19 .
What is most surprising is that some of the countries most affected are those with stronger health systems. So what is the reason for this?
Already the movement of goods and people across Europe. Just one figure will give a better idea of the volume: 15% of world trade and half of tourism are channelled into Europe. A figure which, until the COVID pandemic, was a source of pride, but which is now becoming the anguish of the old continent.
Speaking of the old continent, what about the average age of Europeans, one in five of whom is 65 or over, compared with one in ten in China? Older Europeans are also often housed in collective structures where the spread is proving to be dazzling.
The comparison between different countries is also distorted. Europe undoubtedly presents more realistic assessments than authoritarian countries, but Europe's belated reactivity remains in view of the seriousness of the situation.
Moreover, there also seems to be a genetic reason for the differences in contamination in the "Scandinavian" countries:
Although the Covid-19 pandemic affects the whole of Europe, the Scandinavian countries and those in the Balkans have much lower contamination figures than the countries further west and south.
Researchers at the University of UGent in Belgium are studying these figures. And they have found a strong correlation with certain genetic characteristics.
The link concerns the ACE1 gene and its polymorphism. The more this polymorphism is present in a country, the fewer deaths are recorded. "This explains why we can see," Professor Joris Delanghe told the Belgian daily Le Soir. "that the severity of the Covid-19 epidemic decreases as we move from Western Europe to Central and Eastern Europe."
According to the researchers, more than 40% of the differences in contamination between countries can be explained by the more or less regular presence of this polymorphism of the ACE1 gene. The study was based on a database of 25 European countries, cross-referenced with figures from the Johns Hopkins University.
It would therefore appear that there is not one but several reasons for the different differences between the different European countries.
Laurence HIRR
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