| | NOVEMBER 20218UTLOOKHealthcare Tech IN MY OPINIONA retrospective analysis of COVID-19 outcomes By Jayne Morgan, M.D., Executive Director of the Covid Task Force, Piedmont Healthcare, Inc.As a pandemic moves through a population, a number of factors, including both aspects of the virus and of the population, alter its effect on different subsets of the population. Regarding the virus, aspects such as its similarity to other viruses or ways in which it mutates over time can change its impact on subsets of the population or the population as a whole. When a virus is itself a mutation of an earlier virus and/or resembles a virus to which a population has been previously exposed, members of that population may already carry partial immunity to the virus. This may lead to differential outcomes for subgroups at baseline. However, even during the course of a pandemic, when there are differences in exposure--such as may happen with healthcare workers, essential workers, and disadvantaged groups during a lockdown--different subgroups may develop immunity faster than others, and/or reach a saturation point at which the majority of the most vulnerable have already been infected or are deceased. This means that those groups affected the most in earlier waves can feel less of an impact in subsequent waves both in infection and Jayne Morgan
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