Death Rates In The U.S. During Pandemic Far Higher Than Other Countries
By: Jason Beaubien (NPR. org)
The highlighted study is an indictment against the healthcare system of the United States.
The rate at which the virus spreads is influenced by social behavior. Mortality rates are influenced by the type and quality of medical care that is delivered. The overall mortality rate is a measure of fatalities from all causes, not just fatalities attributed to COVID. The healthcare system in the United States is failing by all comparative measures.
The United States has been spending a tremendous amount of money on healthcare; from research to clinical delivery of medical care. The results really do indicate that throwing more money at the healthcare system has not improved the quality and effectiveness of medical care. We also know that more money spent on healthcare has made the system less affordable.
A rational conclusion from evidence provided by studies like these is that focusing attention on health insurance has been a huge mistake. The political remedies pursued in the United States are denying the evidence. The United States is only paying more for lower quality medical care.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
During this pandemic, people in the United States are currently dying at rates unparalleled elsewhere in the world.
A new report in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that over the last 5 months per capita deaths in the U.S., both from COVID-19 and other causes have been far greater than in 18 other high-income countries.
"It's shocking. It's horrible," says Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a professor of health policy and medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the authors of the study.
"The United States really has done remarkably badly compared to other countries," he says and then adds, "I mean, remarkably badly."
The study looks at per capita death rates in 2020 in 18 countries with populations larger than 5 million people and per capita gross domestic product levels above $25,000 per year. It breaks out deaths attributed to COVID-19, but also examines how total deaths in the U.S. are higher than normal this year. This so-called "all-cause" mortality takes in to account fatalities that may have been due to the coronavirus but were never confirmed or were due to other factors such as people not seeking medical care during the crisis.
Overall deaths in the United States this year are more than 85% higher than in places such as Germany, Israel and Denmark after adjusting for population size. Deaths in the U.S. are 29% higher than even in Sweden, "which ignored everything for so long," Emanuel says. Sweden made a point of refusing to order strict social restrictions and never went in to a full lockdown. "We have 29% more mortality than we should have if we'd followed Sweden's path and Sweden virtually did nothing."
Even looking just at confirmed COVID-19 deaths, the number of people dying since May 10th — again after adjusting for population size — is on average 50% higher than every other country in the study. In addition the rate people are dying in the U.S. has stayed far above everywhere else. Emanuel says the current elevated mortality rates are important because they eliminate the chaotic early months of the pandemic when testing, treatment and reporting varied dramatically around the globe.
The rate of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. since June 7th is 27.2 per 100,000 people. In contrast in Italy the death rate is down to 3.1 per 100,000.
"It's not like Italy has some secret medicine that we don't," Emmanuel says. "They've got the same public health measures we've got. They just implemented them effectively and we implemented them poorly." If the U.S. had managed to keep its per capita death rate at the level of Italy's, 79,120 fewer Americans would have died.
This study is important for illustrating just how bad the death rate from COVID-19 has been in the U.S. compared to other countries, says Theo Vos, a professor of health metrics and evaluation at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle.
"The U.S. is in the company of a few other countries with very high rates of deaths assigned to COVID," says Vos who was not involved in the study. "Only Belgium looks worse." But he points out that once you look past the initial phase of the outbreak, the U.S. ends up looking worse than Belgium.
"Early on in the epidemic, many countries had a lack of testing possibilities. And a lot of deaths occurred early on where there was no formal diagnosis," he says. "So Belgium decided we're going to count all of them. While in other countries like the Netherlands or the U.K. and the U.S. quite a few deaths have not been recognized as COVID."
He says this is why looking at overall deaths since the start of the pandemic, not just official COVID-19 deaths is important. On that measure the U.S. is now consistently reporting roughly 25% more deaths than these other wealthy nations.
Vos is from the Netherlands and even though he works for the University of Washington, he recently moved back to Holland. He says looking at how death rates are changing over time is important because this pandemic is far from over.
"I now live in a country that's seeing the biggest increase in the number of cases of almost any place in the world currently," he says. Second waves of infections are hitting many places in Europe right now including France, Spain, Belgium and the U.K. Vos expects this to get even worse as more people spend more time indoors in the colder months.
He says there's also been a lot of complacency in Europe. "Here in the Netherlands, there is an appalling low acceptance of masks," he says. "Only in the last week I've started seeing other people in the supermarket wearing a mask. I used to be the only one."
So while the U.S. death rates so far have been much higher than most other wealthy countries, Vos says, that could change as this pandemic continues to ebb and surge in various parts of the world.
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In the United States attention has been focused on preventative measures; masks and social distancing. Preventative measures are cheap and do not require delivery of medical care. Preventative measures do not require throwing enormous amounts of money at the healthcare system. Preventative measures are social behaviors that influence the rate of spread of the virus.
Preventative measures are not completely effective; people will still become infected with stringent preventative measures. We've seen that in other countries. We've seen that in the medical workers of the United States.
Death rates are influenced by the type and quality of medical care that is delivered. The overall death rate, not just the COVID death rate, is far higher in the United States than other developed countries. The healthcare system of the United States is failing by all comparative measures.
Blaming the public for failing to take preventative measures to reduce spread of the virus doesn't justify the amount of money the United States spends on healthcare. Blaming the public for not preventing spread of infections doesn't excuse the healthcare system for its woefully poor performance in delivering medical care.
The US had abysmal leadership during the pandemic!
That is only a political attempt to blame the public for allowing themselves to become infected. The coronavirus doesn't care about leadership.
We know that Joe Biden has taken up the refrain that poor leadership has caused over 215,000 deaths. Of course, we have no idea if those people followed the guidelines or not. We do know that medical staff have been dying and medical staff practice far more stringent preventative measures than the public. The coronavirus doesn't care.
The seeded article highlights that overall death rate is worse than for other countries; even Sweden who did not adopt Joe Biden's leadership. Overall death rate includes deaths from other causes, not just COVID related deaths. The results of the study really is an indictment of the healthcare system in the United States.
Focusing attention on insurance has been extraordinarily stupid. That's not surprising when Joe Biden is touted as the model of leadership.
Because the public had such abysmal leadership!
The leadership in Sweden was to allow herd immunity to develop through infection. And the performance of the healthcare system of the United States has been demonstrably worse than that of Sweden.
Follow the evidence; believe the science. The healthcare system in the United States is failing according to comparative measures.
Tell that to Sweden. Their death rate is far lower than ours.
Also tell that to the Democratic governors and mayors that forced people that tested positive for Covid 19 into retirement and nursing homes- putting the most susceptible at risk.
Yet, Swedish leadership was to allow herd immunity to develop through infection. Sweden's leadership toward the pandemic is a matter of public record. Sweden has paid a heavy price for that leadership. But Sweden's healthcare system is providing measurably better results while the country is allowing herd immunity through infection.
The healthcare system in the United States is not performing as well as is Sweden's healthcare system. The evidence shows that both overall death rates and COVID specific death rates are higher in the United States than in Sweden. The evidence indicates that Sweden's delivery of medical care is outperforming the United States in treatment of illnesses and prevention of death.
Sweden's healthcare system is objectively providing improved outcomes compared to the healthcare system of the United States. Follow the evidence, believe the science.
The data is cherry picked though. It ignores data from the first wave for Europe, while starting when the second wave in the states picked up.
death rates in Europe are rising and in some countries exceed the United states on a daily basis currently, even as they just are entering the second wave.
This week, Europe overtook the U.S. in a key metric that tracks the virus’s spread while accounting for differences in population size. The 27 countries of the European Union and the U.K. recorded 78,000 cases a day on average over a seven-day period ending on Oct. 12, or 152 cases for every million residents. The U.S. recorded 49,000 a day on average over the same period, about 150 for every million residents.
Somehow, this is Trump's fault. If he were just a better leader, Europeans wouldn't have a massive Covid outbreak.
Perhaps if Trump was a better leader we'd have the mortality rate and/or the case per million of Australia, NZ, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore etc etc.
So if Trump told us to drink vodka and take saunas we'd have the mortality rate of Belarus?
I hate to break it to you, but the hows and whys of why some countries have been hit worse than others is a lot more complicated than, "uh they have a better leader."
My point is as always that comparisons don't mean shit, Sean. It seems to be something that goes over your head time after time.
Your concern should be what the US is doing and more specific to you, what is happening in WI.
But if you want to keep pointing fingers and ignoring what is happening in your own country, have at it.
Yesterday we had 52,407 new COVID cases and 804 deaths and today looks like the numbers will be that or higher.
But be sure to compare it to some other country so we can say ''oh look bumfuck North Rottland is worse''.
Right. Tell the guy who wrote this that. "if Trump was a better leader we'd have the mortality rate and/or the case per million of Australia, NZ, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore etc etc."
wBut if you want to keep pointing fingers
Project much? Do you do anything else other than blame Trump?
ur concern should be what the US is doing and more specific to you, what is happening in WI.
To understand what's happening in Wisconsin or America one must understand what's happening in the world. I know you don't get past "orange man bad" level of analysis, but understanding what's happening in other countries or in other states is how you gain perspective on what's happening in America.
rday we had 52,407 new COVID cases and 804 deaths and today looks like the numbers will be that or higher
Yes, and be sure and ignore all other countries with similar numbers so you can play your ignorant little "orange man killed 200,000" people card. If nothing else, you know how to politicize the virus.
What the hell would you have him do?
In a country based on freedom and individual responsibility, "leaders" don't carry much weight.
I do ignore all the countries for comparison with the US. I'm a hell of a lot more concerned about what is happening in the US.
You might want to get past your ignorant ''orange man good'' and pay attention to the cases and death in the US.
Or you could join in the rallies that do not conform to his own CDC guidelines.
If nothing else, you know how to politicize the virus and ignore what the pandemic is doing in the US.
Well, as long as you admit you keep your head in the sand and actively avoid knowledge, there's nothing I can do to help.
might want to get past your ignorant ''orange man good'' a
I'm not the one obsessed about Trump and ignoring facts to sling partisan shit. That's you.
nd pay attention to the cases and death in the US.
Do you? I assume given the amount of time you spend praising Gov Whitmer for her performance you don't really pay attention to cases and deaths in America. Have you ever actually looked at the amount of deaths in Michigan?
Too funny, I'm sure that pointing out the cases and deaths in other countries helps stop the cases and deaths in the US...
So you say..LMAO the slinger of more partisan shit than almost anyone on NT...
Pointing out that she got the positivity rate down to 2 or 3% for the last three month is praising her, OK then I praised her. Of course, I'm well aware of the deaths in American, I pointed them out to you on numerous occasions. Yes, I've looked at the deaths in MI. that is why I said that Whitmer has been able to bring the death and positivity rate.
Keep spinning Sean.
Cheers
We were expected to handle the pandemic better than other western countries because we had 2 to 3 weeks of additional time to act, we have virtually unlimited money, we have the best scientists and epidemiologists, and we have a manufacturing capability second to none.
BUT, for 6 weeks, Trump lied about virus’s danger to keep the markets high. We know he lied because, being a germophobe, he did learn everything he could about the virus. We know from the Woodward interview that he knew how contagious and fatal COVID-19 was by February 7, 2020. Trump’s indifference to lives allowed the virus to spread like crazy in NY & NJ. FEMA sent 85 refrigerated truck trailers to be used as temporary morgues. The Jacob Javits Center was converted into a 1,000 bed hospital and hospital tents were set up in Central Park. Trump initially did nothing about the PPE shortage, and continues to limit testing availability because he thinks if people don’t know the scale of the problem it will help with his re-election.
NY & NJ, being the first to deal with this disaster, did not know how dangerous it was to the elderly, did not know that intubation was often dangerous, did not know that Remdesivir could significantly reduce hospital stays, did not know about cytokine storms. Many people died. If we had social distanced even 2 weeks earlier, the initial death rate would likely have been 60% lower.
Not having a vaccine or curative drugs means that masks, social distancing, testing and tracking are the most effective tools against the virus. Yet, Trump purposely limited testing and made wearing masks & social distancing political statements. Trump acted as the malignant narcissist he is and now we are coronavirus center for the world.
To answer your question Greg: Trump could have told us how dangerous the virus was so masks & social distancing could have started earlier. Trump could have used the WPA to make and coordinate the distribution of PPE. Trump could have used the WPA to immediately ramp up testing and tracking to corral the virus. What he did instead what what he thought would benefit him, he could not care less about Americans.
Saying that leaders do not carry much weight is attempt to mitigate Trump's epic incompetence. He's directly responsible for people not wearing masks and thinking the virus is not real and can be ignored.
So? The seeded article is not discussing infection rates. Spread of the virus is influenced by social behavior. Highlighting infection rates is a way to blame the public for the coronavirus. Politically the infections are not caused by the virus; the infections are caused by the public not doing what the government has told them to do. And since the public isn't doing what they have been told to do, as shown by infection rates, then the government must impose more stringent measures and enforcement.
The infection rate in Sweden is comparable to that of the United States. Swedes are just as likely to become infected as are Americans.
The article is discussing mortality rates. Mortality rates are influenced by the type and quality of medical care. The healthcare system is responsible for treating those who have been infected. And the quality of medical care determines the outcome of the illness. A healthcare system that is experiencing a higher mortality rate simply isn't performing as well. A comparative analysis of mortality rates indicates how well different healthcare systems are performing in treating infection and surviving infection. Swedes have a better chance of surviving infection with the Swedish healthcare system than do Americans with the United States' healthcare system. That's what the mortality rates indicate.
No, it's not.
he infections are caused by the public not doing what the government has told them to do.
The infections are caused by a nasty virus.
A healthcare system that is experiencing a higher mortality rate simply isn't performing as well.
No, it doesn't. Not all infections are captured. Countries don't count covid deaths the same way, or count them at all. Not all populations are of the same risk. There are all sorts of variables at play that make these sort of comparisons silly.
If your argument were true, sub saharan africa has the best healthcare in the world.
The mortality rate is not based upon the number of infections. The overall mortality rate includes deaths from all causes, not just COVID deaths.
The comparison was based on criteria comparable to the United States. Europe's healthcare system is out performing the United States' healthcare system.
The United States' medical care is allowing a larger portion of the population to die than is Europe's medical care.
Underlying health issues must be included in mortality rates, if discussing Covid-19. American mortality rates due to Coronary Heart Disease is 36% higher than Sweden. The Type 2 diabetes rate in the U.S. is more than double Sweden. Overall Obesity is 75% higher than Sweden. These are factors that heavily influence the Covid-19 outcome, even if hospital care were consistent across countries.
That we have such high rates of the aforementioned is where the real failure is seen in our over all healthcare system.
Sadly, ignored by so many Americans.