President Trump has stated that his administration has done an excellent job of controlling COVID-19 and in fact has done everything possible. We now know that the president habitually lies, but is this claim true?

We can test his claim by measuring our performance against other countries with similar resources. To do this I arbitrarily chose the countries with human development indices (a measure of wealth, technology, access to medical care, etc.) above 90%. This list of 22 countries includes the U.S. at number 12.

Since the populations of these countries differ widely a meaningful comparison has to look at the number of cases of COVID-19 or deaths due to to covid 19 per 100,000 people. I chose to use deaths because the number of cases within this group may differ because of testing policies. Deaths on the other hand are insensitive to testing policy within this group because virtually all hospitalizations or questionable deaths are tested for covid.

The U.S. at 61 deaths per 100,000 people is in a virtual tie with the U.K. for “second place” trailing only Belgium at 87 deaths per 100,000. There is considerable variability on the list with nine countries at death rates well below 10 per 100,000. These include for example South Korea, Japan, Australia, Norway and Austria. Canada, our neighbor to the north, reports 24 deaths per 100,000.

To me the conclusion is obvious: the U.S., and therefore the Trump administration, has done a very poor job controlling the virus.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration and campaign continue to model poor behaviors with respect to mask wearing and social distancing.

President Trump should be well aware of all the above so I conclude he’s almost certainly lying once again.

By contrast, the Biden campaign models good covid control behavior and aims for expanded access to health care.

Which approach would you prefer?

Truman Seely

Aberdeen