Public health and economic responses to COVID 19: finding the tipping point

Abstract We shed light on an under-reported dimension of the pandemic and its response: namely, the trade-off between early deaths from the virus and potential deaths arising from the economic fallout. Our previous research has shown that recessions and austerity as an economic response to a recession are associated with rises in cancer mortality and all-cause mortality, respectively. We believe it is important to highlight the considerations in this tradeoff.