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How Badly Is the US Botching Its Response?

The US has been hit harder by COVID-19 than any other advanced economy.

Have you heard that?

It feels true. It’s what I’ve been reading and hearing in the media for the past several months.

I just looked it up. Here are the data as of August 8:

The 10 advanced economies with the most COVID-19 deaths per 100,000

  1. Belgium: 86.3
  2. UK: 70.8
  3. Spain: 0
  4. Italy: 58.2
  5. Sweden: 56.5
  6. United States: 3
  7. France: 45.2
  8. Ireland: 36.5
  9. Netherlands: 35.8
  10. Canada: 24.3

The US is currently 6th.

What does that mean?

It means that COVID-19 has resulted in the deaths of about 161,350 people. That’s a bit less than one-half of 1% of the US population.

It also means that – in terms of death as a percentage of population and contrary to the impression I had – we are not even in the top five.

But it also means that there are hundreds of countries, large and small, rich and poor, that have so far experienced fewer deaths than we have. Are they doing something we aren’t doing? Can we learn something from them?

I thought it would be interesting to look at the bottom 10. Here they are:

The 10 countries with the least COVID-19 deaths per 100,000

  1. Anguilla: 0.0 (3 cases)
  2. British Virgin Islands: 0.0 (9 cases)
  3. Holy See: 0.0 (12 cases)
  4. St .Kitts/Nevis: 0.0 (17 cases)
  5. Dominica: 0.0 (18 cases)
  6. Laos: 0.0 (20 cases)
  7. Grenada: 0.0 (24 cases)
  8. Saint Lucia: (25 cases)
  9. Timor-Leste: 0.0 (25 cases)
  10. Fuji: 1.0 (27 cases)

Does this mean that these countries did the best job in keeping their citizens safe?

Is it likely that Fuji, Laos, and Anguilla are on the honor roll because they have done more and better testing, provided better medical treatment, and had more success with getting their citizens to follow the WHO protocols?

I don’t think so.