What Bloomberg’s resilience ranking tells us

Bloomberg, one of the largest global market information organizations, recently published a league table they term “the Covid resilience ranking” of the best places to be living in, in the coronavirus era, indicating the effectiveness of the handling of the virus combined with the least amount of disruption to business and society. 

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They considered some 10 key metrics to score 53 economies with more than $200 billion, and the metrics included, among others, the viral caseload, mortality rate, effectiveness of trace, treat, and isolate strategy, the capacity of the health care system, the impact of lockdowns, freedom of movement of the population, and vaccine supply arrangement. 

They found that many a wealthy economy regarded as the most prepared for a pandemic may have been overwhelmed by repeated surges in coronavirus infection, necessitating recurrent lockdowns with adverse impact on their economies, and causing disruption in freedom of movement of their citizens. In contrast, many other economies -- both developed and developing -- may have defied expectation and done well, occupying elite positions in the league table.  

In May 2020, I wrote about the leaders who have championed the genuine concerns of the populations they lead with their honest compassion and pragmatism. I mentioned the names of a few: Angela Merkel, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Moon Jae-in, Tsai Ing-wen, Jacinda Ardern. 

Not surprisingly, New Zealand led by the dynamic and extremely popular Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tops the Bloomberg league table with the highest achieved score of 85.4. This was followed by Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Finland. India, with a resilience score of 58.1, was placed in 34th position, Pakistan, with a score of 61.7, has performed better than India, and was ranked 27th, whereas Bangladesh, with a score of 64.2, was placed at the 24th position. Vietnam with a score of 74.3 was placed in 10th position.

Given the positions of countries in the league table, I would emphasize that though doubtful, the table may give an overall impression, as comparisons can be attempted only if the variables used are known, accurate, and comparable. I remember in my days during our War of Liberation as a recruiting aide, the courage of young people demonstrated was mostly exemplary, startling, and often unexpected and unforeseen. The valour unleashed could often be out of character, though conclusions on their ability to perform as a freedom fighter could not have been drawn, as much was unknown. 

When data is unknown, as well as unreliable and dissimilar, it is impossible to compare objectively. Scientists such as Sir David Spiegelhalter from the University of Cambridge is of the opinion that trying to rank different countries in the pandemic is a “completely fatuous exercise” and there is danger that such a table can adroitly be adopted by authoritative regimes as a thoroughfare to disaster for a population, if used for deception and deceit.

Confirmation of Covid-infection can only be arrived at by investigative tests, and it is obvious that if a country carries out extensive tests, their yield of caseloads would be higher than the ones who conducted fewer tests. Many recorded the number of people tested in the country, in contrast to others who have documented the total number of tests carried out, signifying diverse connotation and as such, the number of tests may not spell out uniform significance, as many may have tested more than once. The timing of tests, and place of test done, may have impacted the caseload.