US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently claimed that the United States had the highest death rate from COVID-19 of any nation on earth. However, this statement has been debunked by fact-checkers.

COVID-19 Death Rates

According to Johns Hopkins University, Peru had the highest number of COVID-19 deaths per capita during the first three years of the pandemic, with a rate of 665.84 deaths per 100,000 people. The US, on the other hand, had a per capita death rate of 341.11 deaths per 100,000 people, which is the 14th highest rate.

Additionally, the US did not lead the world in the case-fatality ratio, which is the number of deaths compared to the number of confirmed cases. Peru had a case-fatality rate of 4.9%, while the US had a rate of 1.1%.

Analysts have attributed Peru’s high death rate to several factors, including an impoverished and informal economy, lack of protective medical equipment, shortages of oxygen, and a weak public health system.

Excess Deaths

Another way to look at the numbers is through excess deaths, which is a count of deaths beyond what would be normally expected. According to Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University, this is a fairer metric that isn’t as biased by a country’s ability to accurately diagnose infections and causes of deaths.

An analysis of excess deaths in 2020 and 2021 found that countries such as Russia, Mexico, and Brazil had higher excess mortality rates than the United States.

Original reporting: WRAL Raleigh — read the source article.