Oftentimes, mortality rates compare the number of deaths attributed to novel coronavirus infection to the number of those who have tested positive to the virus. The problem with this is that the percentage of the United States population that has been tested is below 7%, and this number varies among differing areas.
To me, it makes more sense to use the mortality numbers of the World Health Organization, and to compare that number to the total population of the area in question, found simply by Googling. This then offers a better representation of current mortality rates which can be compared between areas.
I actually performed these calculations as of June 10, 2020, and I ranked the areas relative to the mortality rates calculated. Unfortunately, the United States did not perform well at all.
Those areas that performed in the top group include Africa, the Western Pacific region, and India. Those areas that performed in the second best group include the Eastern Mediterranean region, Texas, Collin County, and Plano, Texas.
To continue, those areas that performed in the third best group include the region of the Americas, Southeast Asia, Brazil (as of now; they are currently spiking), and Dallas County. Those in the fourth best group include Europe, and unfortunately, in the fifth group, with the relatively highest mortality rate, is the United States of America.
Yes, the United States did not fare well at all. It seems that possible reasons include the fact that the United States is the third most populated country in the world, the United States has many densely populated cities as a result of its population, the results of China are in question due to their not being particularly transparent with their information (China was not included), the citizens of the United States value freedom and may not be as compliant to governmental mitigation efforts, and because politics in the United States has a way of providing conflicting information, leading many not to trust in governmental mitigation regulatory efforts.
Clearly, the United States can do better. Us citizens, individually, can do our best to follow the mitigation efforts. We have all heard these efforts; we truly need to follow them!
