COVID versus GermanyCOVID versus Germany

Creator: Gina Romanazzi '22 Digital Media Studies and Music

These two sets of maps show the development of Covid-19 infections and deaths across a timespan of seven months in two countries, the United States and Germany, respectively. For the purpose of direct comparison, numbers of infections and deaths are set in relation to the population, per 100,000 inhabitants of each state. At the beginning of the time period, both countries perform similarly with infections overall rising, but relatively low count of deaths. However, going forward in the time span, it is evident that both the count of infections and deaths in the U.S. increase at a faster rate than in Germany. Already in June, the “U.S. has just 4% of the global population, but 25% of global coronavirus cases and the second highest death rate per capita.” (doggett.house.gov)

Comparing what measures are being taken by the federal governments of the United States and Germany, many similarities in their approaches are evident: Essential are widespread implementation of testing for Covid-19 pathogens and antigens, contact tracing, social distancing and wearing of face coverings. Similarly, both countries need to structure their response in collaboration with each of their federal states that are responsible for the final implementation of measures. However, while in the United States the approach is more based on the personal freedom of the people and individual states in combination with prosperity for the economy by enforcing less stricter regulations for the general public, the German government generally imposes a stricter set of regulations with more rigorous social distancing. Regardless the differences, both approaches face criticism from sceptics as each variant presents its own advantages and disadvantages.

Citation
doggett.house.gov. “Timeline of Trump’s Coronavirus Responses.” Congressman Lloyd Doggett, 2 Dec. 2020, doggett.house.gov/media-center/blog-posts/timeline-trump-s-coronavirus-responses.
All other sources can be found in the main paper.