Let me fix that for statement for you - then we can use our brains and gather more info to understand your statement in context.
US has ~4% of the world's population and ~20% of its
reported* COVID deaths
Four points on this:
- China has been been cruising at ~80,000 reported deaths for months. The virus originated here. They have lower hygiene and sanitation standards, and their cities have higher population density. Also the government heavily controls information. I know, I lived in China 10+ years. There is no way on God's green earth the numbers they have put out are accurate - which would be par for the course for Chinese gov't stats. I would wager, other countries with big populations are also under reporting (Russia, India, etc.) The US is actually quite transparent on stats. Go us!
- The US has a LOT of contact with China - lots of travel both ways. The US being this affected by the virus so much has more to do with mid/end 2019 travel to/from China than it does our reaction to it. It was already here. We just needed to not screw our elderly in nursing homes ala NY/MI
- US is over reporting. Part fear, part political - those are related. Dying while having COVID ≠ dying because of COVID.
- We got a mixed bag of results of countries locking down versus not locking down. Mask mandates versus no mandates.