Our research shows how 'tighter' societies do better – and how the rest must learn to adapt to defeat the pandemic. With a death toll of over 2 million and nearly 100 million people infected worldwide, Covid-19 is still wreaking havoc even as vaccines are rolled out. Yet fatalities are far from evenly distributed. Some nations have effectively beaten the pandemic; others have been soundly defeated. Japan's 126 million citizens have recorded just over 5,000 deaths. With a nearly identical population, Mexico has suffered more than 150,000 casualties and counting.