Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
COVID-19: How does it compare with other diseases?
COVID-19 | Public Health
September 27, 2021 – As countries make the transition from viewing COVID-19 as a special threat to managing it as an endemic disease, it may be helpful to compare the progress of the pandemic with other health conditions that countries have grown comfortable in managing. Click through to see data for the United States, United Kingdom, and France.
Interactive
To read the article, see “COVID-19: A comparison with other public-health burdens,” September 8, 2021.
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Visual form
Slide-based two-panel time-series comparison chart.
Layout / body structure
The source uses a repeating country frame with hospitalizations on the left, deaths on the right, and a benchmark legend column on the far right. Reader scans each country view left to right and can then step to the next frame to compare how the same chart structure changes across markets.
What is being compared
Each frame compares COVID-19 hospitalization and death rates against other public-health threats, while also separating COVID-19 rates for unvaccinated people, the entire population, and vaccinated people. The comparison is therefore both disease-to-disease and population-to-population within each country view.
Measurement system
Both panels are measured as number per 100,000, with the hospitalization chart running to about 60 and the deaths chart running to about 15. The right-hand benchmark column adds comparison dots for influenza peaks, traffic injuries, and cancer, while the legend distinguishes the dashed unvaccinated series from the two solid COVID-19 lines.
Visible structure inside the graphic
Every frame repeats the same anatomy: paired time-series panels from August 2020 to August 2021, a right-side legend and benchmark stack, and headline text naming the country-specific takeaway. The observed frames for the United States and France both use solid and dashed blue lines for COVID-19 groups and a right-edge column of circular benchmark markers for non-COVID threats.
Main takeaway from the visual
The makes COVID-19 look comparable to, and at times larger than, major public-health threats when rates are broken out for unvaccinated people, while also showing that the shapes and severity of the curves vary by country. The layout turns the question from a single headline claim into a country-by-country benchmark exercise.
Key standout values or extremes
In the observed US frame, the dashed unvaccinated hospitalization curve rises into the 50s per 100,000 near the end of the period and the deaths curve climbs above the other benchmark dots. In the observed France frame, deaths are rising again late in the period but stay below the earlier wave, showing how the same chart template can produce a different country conclusion.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This page is sourced from a country-switching that lets the reader move between national views while keeping the same paired hospitalization-and-deaths layout.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart is the full visual on this page.