Does the Prosperity of a Country Play a Role in COVID-19 Outcomes?

Objective: This study aims to clarify the association between prosperity and novel coronavirus disease 2019 outcomes and its impact on the future management of pandemics.

Methods: This study is an observational study using information from two online registries. The numbers of infected individuals and deaths and the prosperity rank of each country were obtained from worldometer.info and the Legatum Institute’s Prosperity Index, respectively.

Results: There is a combination of countries with high and low prosperity on the list of coronavirus disease 2019 infected countries. The risk of the virus pandemic seems to be more extensive in countries with high prosperity. A Spearman’s rho test confirmed a significant correlation between prosperity, the number of coronavirus disease 2019 cases, and the number of deaths at the 99% level.

Conclusion: New emerging pandemics affect all nations. In order to increase the likelihood of successfully managing future events, it is important to consider pre-existing health security, valid population-based management approaches, medical decision-making, communication, continuous assessment, triage, treatment, early and complete physical distancing strategies, and logistics. These elements cannot be taught on-site and on occasion. There is a need for innovative and regular educational activities for all stakeholders committed to safeguarding our future defense systems concerning diagnostic, protection, treatment, and rehabilitation in pandemics as well as other emergencies.