Low-income countries are more immune to COVID-19: A misconception

Abstract

Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic has hit countries such as Italy, Spain, France, UK, and the USA with great force, whereas the number of cases in countries such as India and most parts of Africa is comparatively lower. Such observation has made many people believe that the low-income countries may be more immune to COVID-19. Theories such as warm climate, weaker strain of the virus, and cross-protection by malaria have been popularly put forward. One such interesting theory is that since the general people of the low- income countries are mostly habituated to dwell in lesser hygienic condition and with lesser medical attention throughout their lifetime; hence, they have naturally acquired better immunity and more resilience against many infective diseases. Materials and Methods: We sought to investigate the above claim by comparing the case fatality rate (CFR) as well as number of cases per million population versus the gross domestic product at purchasing power parity per capita of different countries. Results: We found that while the number of cases showed a slight decline in the lower-income countries, the CFR was independent of the financial condition of the country. Conclusion: We conclude that the theory of better immunity in economically poor countries is a misconception. We suggest that people must come out of these misconceptions and resort to strict home isolation.

The Implications of Misconceptions about Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic in Relation to its Daily Increases from Nigerian Perspective

“…Holding on to some of these misconceptions have actually made many people to openly disregard the prescribed preventive measures being put in place to contain the disease. Similarly, some studies have corroborated the documentation of some common misconceptions about the virus in this study [18][19][20][21]36]. Relatively, their find-ucational opportunities at all levels [17]; including the health sector [23,27,52].…”

“…Contrary to the common belief from social media that "the economically poor countries such as many African countries and India will be to some extent less affected by COVID-19 pandemic than the high-income countries such as the USA, UK, France, Italy, etc." has been proved wrong [36]. This is because; the virus has been spreading widely regardless of countries' economic status.…”

“…This is because; the virus has been spreading widely regardless of countries' economic status. So, the belief that economically poor countries have better immunity is mere misconception [36]. Also, a study among US and UK participants "believed that children were at an especially high risk of death when infected with SARS-CoV-2" and "thought it was necessary to stop eating at restaurants belonging to the Chinese" [37].…”

“…It is likely that sustaining or continuing with this type of belief-systems during the COVID-19 pandemic period will go a long way in creating more harms than benefits for humanity. Though, some of these misconceptions have been proved to be false [14,21,36] but many people still feel reluctant to change their belief-systems about the virus.…”

Age Structured Mixture Model for Early COVID-19 Spread: A Zimbabwean Risk Factor Analysis

“…To date Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains with no cure or vaccine. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in so many fears, myths, misrepresentations and misconceptions [1,2]. Different governments and authorities have been putting different measures to help limit the spread of the disease [3,4].…”