Income distribution, poverty and deaths in times of COVID-19. Is there a selective mortality?

Objective: to evaluate whether SARS-CoV2 had asymmetric consequences among Mexico’s population; in particular, to analyze whether income distribution, poverty, or both had any effect on the distribution of lethality and mortality rates across municipalities. Methodology: given the characteristics of the data, we use a Negative Binomial Model to assess the impact of income distribution and poverty on the distribution of deaths across municipalities. We considered and took into account comorbidities and some other sociodemographic variables. Results: we find that the expected number of deaths increases with income inequality while it decreases with poverty, ceteris paribus. We tested different models’ specifications, and the conclusions remained unchanged. Limitations: These conclusions should be considered as preliminary because we did not have precise information about the deceased’s surroundings. In addition, many of the poorest municipalities did not have information on either contagions nor deceases, which may add some bias to the estimates. Originality: Our study represents a contribution to the growing literature on health inequality. It provides evidence on how income inequality and poverty were related to COVID-19 lethality and mortality rates in a Less Developed Economy. Conclusions: The relationship between socioeconomic fac-tors and the health conditions of the population is a very important one and needs further study. To the extent that we can identify and quantify the magnitude of this relationship, we could design better health systems that would allow us to face phenomena like COVID-19.