LAUSR

The relative performance levels of various COVID-19 therapeutic options in countries with similarly developed health systems have been examined, and various therapies have been found to correspond to different fatality rates. An examination of therapeutic approaches can contribute to explaining why fatality rates can vary by up to ten times despite the presence of similar rates of infection in various countries. On December 15, 2020, before the start of the vaccination campaign, the fatality rates of such cases in the United Kingdom and Belgium were 3.43% and 2.97%, respectively, while the United Arab Emirates and Qatar had rates of 0.33% and 0.17%. On August 7, 2021 (latest datacollection point at the time of this letter’s writing) the United Kingdom and Belgium had rates of 2.15% and 2.22%, while the United Arab Emirates and Qatar had rates of 0.28% and 0.26%. The other members of The Cooperation Council for the Arab States have also noted fatality rates among COVID-19 patients that are well below those of most other countries with similarly developed health care systems, such as Italy, Australia, Belgium, the United Kingdom (UK), Canada, and France. Data from ourworldindata.org, based on the COVID-19 Data Repository by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University, are presented in Figure 1. The latest (August 7, 2021) ratios between confirmed deaths and cases are 1.56% in the KSA (KSA), 1.32% in