U.S. pandemic death toll higher than in 20 peer countries: study

A healthcare worker helps a patient in the "COVID Area" of the Beverly Hospital in Montebello City, California, the United States, Jan. 22, 2021. (Xinhua)

U.S. per-capita COVID-19 deaths overall and in both state subgroups significantly exceeded those of all peer countries, with 370,298 COVID-19 deaths (112/100,000) during Delta and Omicron (61/100,000 and 51/100,000, respectively).

NEW YORK, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- COVID-19 exacted a higher infection-related and excess all-cause death toll from the United States than from 20 peer countries throughout the pandemic but had less of an impact in the most-vaccinated states in the Delta and Omicron surges, according to a new study.

"Adjusted for population size, the United States had 155,000 to 466,000 more deaths than peer nations in the second half of 2021 and early 2022," the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota reported on Monday, citing the study published in JAMA last week.

U.S. per-capita COVID-19 deaths overall and in both state subgroups significantly exceeded those of all peer countries, with 370,298 COVID-19 deaths (112/100,000) during Delta and Omicron (61/100,000 and 51/100,000, respectively).

But COVID-19 death rates were significantly lower in the 10 states with the highest vaccination coverage (73 percent coverage; 75 deaths/100,000 people) than those in the 10 least-vaccinated states (52 percent coverage; 146/100,000).

"COVID-19 vaccination rates in peer countries ranged from a low of 64 percent in Israel to 82 percent in South Korea. Overall U.S. vaccination coverage was 63 percent," said the report.

For the study, researchers from the Brown School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania compared the United States overall, the 10 most- and least-vaccinated states, and 20 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries with a population exceeding 5 million and a per-capita gross domestic product higher than 25,000 U.S. dollars in 2021, according to the report.