[JustAnotherFan]

Seems like their proximity to and their traveling to and from the affected countries might be a big driver, especially if the fatality rate is a function of capacity. I'd be interested to see the amount of travel between Italian-Switzerland and Northern Italy vs. Italian-Switzerland and German-Switzerland. 

On this note, a fascinating chart showing that CFR rates have varied in Switzerland quite dramatically from Canton to Canton depending on whether they are predominantly German-speaking, French-speaking, or Italian-speaking:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/TrevorSutcliffe/status/1243098835036979200?s=20/[/tweet]

Unless there are dramatically different healthcare systems among those Cantons that is nearly perfectly correlated with the Canton's predominant language, this may be further evidence that it may be difficult to calculate the virus's "native" CFR due to how much it may vary depending on social practices, and especially if exposure to higher viral loads leads to worse outcomes. As some of the lay reactions to this correlation suggest, some joke that "Germans are natural social distancers," whereas Italians like to hug and kiss, with the French somewhere in the middle. 

This also makes me think of Japan, where bowing rather than handshakes and hugs are the more standard social greetings. Japan has seemed to have been hit early but not badly without as many imposed social distancing measures and the same degree of testing, contact tracing and isolation that other East Asian countries have implemented.

[JustAnotherFan]

Seems like their proximity to and their traveling to and from the affected countries might be a big driver, especially if the fatality rate is a function of capacity. I'd be interested to see the amount of travel between Italian-Switzerland and Northern Italy vs. Italian-Switzerland and German-Switzerland. 

On this note, a fascinating chart showing that CFR rates have varied in Switzerland quite dramatically from Canton to Canton depending on whether they are predominantly German-speaking, French-speaking, or Italian-speaking:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/TrevorSutcliffe/status/1243098835036979200?s=20/[/tweet]

Unless there are dramatically different healthcare systems among those Cantons that is nearly perfectly correlated with the Canton's predominant language, this may be further evidence that it may be difficult to calculate the virus's "native" CFR due to how much it may vary depending on social practices, and especially if exposure to higher viral loads leads to worse outcomes. As some of the lay reactions to this correlation suggest, some joke that "Germans are natural social distancers," whereas Italians like to hug and kiss, with the French somewhere in the middle. 

This also makes me think of Japan, where bowing rather than handshakes and hugs are the more standard social greetings. Japan has seemed to have been hit early but not badly without as many imposed social distancing measures and the same degree of testing, contact tracing and isolation that other East Asian countries have implemented.