US Virus-death rate is world’s worst among developed nations: Report

*US leads the world in total Coronavirus deaths, amid haphazard health steps, with 214,776 as of Monday, October 12, according to data from Johns Hopkins University

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Since the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus disease in November 2019, the proportion of Americans dying from the virus infections has been adjudged to be the highest in the developed world.

A recent study of global mortality rates indicated that the United States (US) pandemic response left citizens exposed to the lethal disease.

It was learnt that early in the outbreak, the US mortality rate from COVID-19 was lower than in many other hard-hit countries, including the United Kingdom (UK), Spain and the Netherlands, noted a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association Monday, October 12, 2020.

However, as spring turned into summer, the US was said to have largely failed to embrace public-health and policy measures that have helped other countries to reduce death rates.

Report stated that if the US deaths after May 10 had occurred at the same pace as in Spain, the US mortality rate would be 47% lower, with 93,247 fewer people dying, the report found.

More than 100,000 fewer Americans would have died if the US had the same mortality rate as the Netherlands.

Sweden’s mortality rate was 22% lower, though it took fewer steps to curb the virus’s spread.

The US leads the world in total Coronavirus deaths, with 214,776 as of Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Brazil ranks second with 150,488 deaths.

America’s failure to control the outbreak is forecast to be costly. When lost output and health setbacks are taken into account, the economic toll of the pandemic is expected to exceed $16 trillion, or about 90% of US annual gross domestic product, a separate report in JAMA said Monday.

Other ripple effects are also expected. On average, nine family members are affected by the loss of each person who dies of COVID-19 in the US.

This development is creating a pool of 2 million mourners, according to another article in JAMA by psychiatrists from NYU Grossman School of Medicine.