Covid-19 in Costa Rica

It has been more than a year since Covid-19 first reared its ugly head. Costa Rica has not been immune but seems to be fairing not too badly.

The following table allows a comparison as to how Costa Rica is doing compared to Canada and the United States. The numbers which appear in columns 2 and 3 were obtained from a much more comprehensive table compiled by Worldometer.info which lists reported cases and deaths in 219 countries and territories throughout the world.  The numbers in columns 4 and 5 were derived from the Worldometer numbers.

The numbers will change from day-to-day and likely will differ at the time you read this.

As indicated, column 5 normalizes the death rate in each country to that in Costa Rica. This is done by dividing the deaths per case in each country by the deaths per case in Costa Rica. Necessarily, the normalized rate for Costa Rica is 1.

I may be misinterpreting the numbers, but the table suggests to me that if you are going to catch Covid-19 you would be better off catching it while living in Costa Rica. If you catch it in the United States, you have a 32% higher chance of dying. If you catch it in Canada, you have an 82% higher chance of dying. Perhaps on average those who live in Costa Rica with more time exposed to outside air are simply healthier than those who live in Canada or the United States. Let me know if you disagree with the math or my assessment.

If you are interested in detailed day-to-day Covid-19 statistics for Costa Rica as a whole and various regions within Costa Rica, then the La Nacion newspaper is a good source. The language is Spanish, but most browsers (Chrome, Safari, etc.) have features which enable seamless translation from Spanish to any one of a number of other languages, including English.

Our Experience

On Wednesday, March 3, Lance and I got our first of two Covid-19 vaccinations. A second dose or booster shot is scheduled for March 24. The first appointment resulted from a telephone call to Lance from a doctor at the local EBAIS healthcare clinic near where we live. We were expecting a call sooner or later but had no idea when. Under Costa Rica's universal healthcare system, it just happened - and reliably so.

We were prepared to deal with the call in Spanish, but the doctor spoke English and stressed that it was important to be "on time". As we learned later, the vaccine was the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. According to Wikipedia it needs to be stored at temperatures between −80 and −60 °C (−112 and −76 °F) until five days before vaccination when it can be stored at 2 to 8 °C (36 to 46 °F), and then at room temperature or slightly higher temperatures for up to two hours.

The vaccine is administered at room temperature where it can deteriorate rapidly if it goes unused. Prior to administration, it has to be removed from refrigeration, diluted, and allowed to warm up to be ready at the time of an appointment. The logistics are demanding. Those who are late for an appointment or are a no-show probably will not be welcome unless they have a compelling excuse. The appointment may have to be rescheduled for a later time - perhaps much later.

While in Canada neither Lance nor I ever took a flu shot because over decades neither of us ever caught the flu. Apart from protecting ourselves, we were never informed that even though we did not have symptoms we might still be carrying the flu virus and taking the shot might serve to protect not only ourselves but also others. We now understand that even if you are relatively immune to a virus (the flu, Covid-19 or otherwise), you might be infected by the virus and affect those around you. This observation was our motivation to take the Covid-19 vaccine.

More About the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine

It may come as a surprise to many, but the research and development (R&D) leading to the production of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was begun in mid-January 2020 by BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH, a German company. At the time, senior management recognized that Covid-19 was a serious problem having worldwide implications and not merely a fly by night issue that would go away soon enough. They initiated a project to develop a potential vaccine and tagged it with the name "Project Lightspeed". This name compares curiously with the name "Operation Warp Speed" announced in May 2020 by Donald Trump and his administration.

The Covid-19 research done by BioNTech was preceded and supported by earlier pioneering work done by Katalin Karikó, a Hungarian-born biochemist who worked in U.S. academia for a number of years without receiving the recognition she deserved. She is presently a senior vice-president of BioNTech.

While BioNTech was at the forefront of R&D, it apparently did not have the resources to develop and commercialize the vaccine on a scale sufficient to meet potential worldwide demand. As a result, it entered a collaboration with Pfizer for all countries except China. In the case of China, it likewise entered into some form of collaboration with Fosun China, a Chinese pharmaceutical company.