US exceptionalism?

The U.S. really is #1 — In coronavirus deaths, anyway.

Out of about 228,000 deaths worldwide, the US — with less than 5% of world population — has about 27% of the deaths.*

* It’s amazing how often those percentages seem to be repeated —
            (GHG emissions, energy use, and resource consumption, for example).

That puts the US at 186 deaths per million people — not as high as many densely-populated European countries, but much higher than the 83 per million in Germany — and only 5.2/million in Cuba, 3.2 deaths per million in China. Even allowing for reporting errors due to lack of testing, the difference is startling.

What causes these wide disparities?

Is it the rapid implementation of widespread testing and contact-tracing in those countries? This is a standard epidemiological approach, and there does seem to be a pattern of mass testing in the countries that have been most successful in minimizing the death toll (rather than testing only those who have symptoms).

Is it the presence of a robust universal healthcare system in those countries, so people do not avoid healthcare for fear of high costs? (Medical expenses are a primary cause of personal bankruptcy in the U.S.)

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Principal source for coronavirus deaths, updated today, was ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data.