It’s been a race no country wants to win. But 20 months into the pandemic, the United States achieved one of the dubious feats on the world stage: It overtook Belgium and Italy for highest COVID-19 death rate among the world’s developed countries.
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This month, as the U.S. marks its millionth COVID death, the country is left pondering how the richest nation on earth has recorded nearly a sixth of the 6.25 million reported deaths from the virus around the world. To be sure, the World Health Organization this month reported that the global death toll is likely 2½ times higher than that official account, and some countries, including China and India, have grossly undercounted COVID deaths. But the United States’ death rate is now 50% higher than the combined rate for high-income countries worldwide.
To read more about how many Americans would still be alive if the country had the Bay Area’s low death rate, click here.