Headlines and people from around the world castigate America for its staggering number of coronavirus cases.  Roughly one fourth of all worldwide confirmed cases come from the good ol' US of A.  American must be failing compared to other industrialized nations, right?  As is often the case, the American media make things look worse than the really are.  An analysis of the statistics reveals that generally Americans have fared better against COVID 19 than Western Europeans.

Death Rates

Deaths are the most important statistic.  Getting COVID is bad; dying from it is far worse.  If a COVID case is confirmed (and there have been over 3.5 million confirmed cases in the USA), yet the inflicted doesn't die; it almost certainly becomes a bad flu.  That doesn't minimize getting the virus; it just minimizes it in relation to dying.

And here are the death rates, per 1,000,000:

Belgium: 857

UK: 679

Spain: 608

Italy: 579

Sweden: 547

France: 450

USA: 430

Germany 110

Why do the media emphasize cases instead of deaths?  Probably because America performs more poorly in this statistic.  No one will deny that the media, by their nature, highlight the negative.  That didn't begin with COVID 19.  I suspect if America's death rates were comparatively high and its case rate comparatively low, media outlets would be hyper-emphasizing death rates instead of cases.

Tests

Remember in March, when the United States was criticized for not having enough testing kits?  That has changed dramatically, although most Americans may not know it.  As of mid-July, the United States has performed a remarkable forty-five million COVID tests.  How does that compare to Western Europe?  Italy and Spain have performed six million tests.  The USA has about five times more people than these nations yet has performed over seven times more tests. France has performed 2.6 million tests. The USA has five times more people than France and has performed over seventeen times more tests.

Cases

Since the USA has performed more tests than any Western European nation, even when adjusted per capita, it stands to reason that the USA will have the most cases, even when adjusted per capita. And that is what the stats show:

Cases per 1,000,000:

USA: 11,000

Spain 6,500

Belgium 6,000

UK 4,400

Italy, 4,000

France 2,500

Germany, 2,500

A natural relationship exists between the number of tests given and those testing positive. A case can't become a case until one is tested. In all nations, inflicted people exist who will never get tested and subsequently become a "case." If all 330,000,000 Americans were tested today, "cases" would skyrocket.

However, those who emphasize the high American case count aren't lying. Even given the number of tests performed, American case rates are still higher. The stats just need to be contextualized. America's case rate is higher, but it isn't as dramatic as the above stats suggest.

Recovery Rates

COVID reveals that the American healthcare system gets a bad rap.  When adjusted per capita, the USA has more ICU beds than any Western European nation.  Possibly as a consequence, an American is more likely to recover from COVID than a Western European.  Here are the confirmed fatality rates:

France: 17%

Belgium 15%

UK 15%

Italy 14%

Spain 9%

Germany 4.5%

USA: 4%

Imagine the field day socialists would have if American mortality rates were the highest.  But since they are generally lower, the facts get ignored.

These stats need to be contextualized, too.  They aren't as dramatic as they seem.  It's not a coincidence that the nation with the highest testing rate (the USA) does best when it comes to recoveries while that with the lowest (France) fares the worst.  Due to its high testing rates, those with mild symptoms will more likely get tested in the USA, and therefore register a positive response.  Then they recover.  This helps America's recovery rate.

It's the opposite in France; those with mild symptoms in France are less likely to get tested.  This has two consequences: first, France's case rate will be lower.  Second, so will their recovery rate since those with mild symptoms will never test positive in the first place, so they can't technically "recover."  Nonetheless, America's recovery rates are still better than Western Europe's.  It's just not as dramatic as the stats above suggest.

Those seeking to score political points argue that the USA is faring worse than other comparable industrialized nations.  That may explain why "cases" become headlines while death rates, recovery rates, and high testing rates are ignored (the media didn't ignore testing rates when they were low).  But a statistical analysis of all the numbers show that America is generally faring better than its Western European peers in relation to COVID 19.

All statistics come from here.

David Byrne earned his Ph.D. in history from Claremont Graduate University.  He is the author of Ronald Reagan: An Intellectual Biography.  His Twitter account is here.