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> If the USA was instead split up into 50 countries, it'd be much further down that ranking even if the exact same number of people died.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covi...

If states were countries, half of the top 20 per capita would consist of US States, with the other half essentially being developing nations.

In fact, I'd say that the only reason the US per capita rate is as low as it is is that states like California (itself accounting for over a tenth of the population) actually took things seriously and brought down that average.

Split hairs all you want, but the fact that the US at one point accounted for a quarter of all cases despite being 4% of the world's population is a stain on the whole country, and a significant argument that the US is directly to blame for the pandemic lasting as long as it did.

Maybe the reason for the large number of cases in the US is people are more mobile in the US. After all, one can travel to 50 states with no border checks. More mobility => faster spread.

It’s hard to argue that since the creation of the Schengen travel zone in Europe.

Travel between Schengen countries was heavily restricted for several months during the pandemic, much more so than travel between US states.

So: taking measures helps. Holding back does not help.

Note realistic measures. Has there ever been a case where the Federal government can fully restrict travel ? Does it even have that power over the citizenry?

The states certainly can, and what's to stop the federal government co-ordinating and supporting state action? Isn't that what it's for? Doing nothing was a choice. Arguably even a strategy.

> The states certainly can, and what's to stop the federal government co-ordinating and supporting state action?

The Federal Government cannot restrict citizens from traveling between the states. I don't know anyone, here in the US anyway, who would even suggest such an action.

The privileges and immunities clause, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution, protects the interstate travel rights of US citizens.

Yes, you already made that point, and I responded by saying that the States can do this and the federal government could just co-ordinate it as part of a national strategy.

In fact travel rights were actually restricted in practice by the Federal Government and it's agencies, and states under both Republican and Democrat leadership. There are many well established exceptions that restrict access to constitutional rights under various circumstances, so the contention that this can't be done falls a bit flat. If nobody can do it, how come everybody did it?

You're somewhat confused. That was my first comment.

The highest death rate both in the US and Europe was this past winter, long after the virus had already spread to every part of both continents.

Christmas travel is a huge deal in the US. I recall at the time many people predicted the spike due to the holiday travel.

Here is some data for all 50 States.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us

I'll let it speak for itself.

> states like California (itself accounting for over a tenth of the population) actually took things seriously

It has little to do with that. If that were the case, Florida would not have been within spitting distance of California. Why is New York at the top of list? They had a similar response as California.

The issue is far more complex than "taking things seriously". Population density, climate, age of population, and job types probably contribute more than simply "taking things seriously".

>> top the chart in pandemic deaths

Well, the USA does top the chart in pandemic deaths. You instead just talk about deaths per capita, and call that misinformation. Ok, but that's not what the GP was talking about. A total straw man.

Then when you get around to mentioning total pandemic deaths, look at all the emotive words you pack into the sentence:

> less honest publications like to compare the total number of deaths in order to cynically take advantage of the fact that there are few countries as big as the USA, but of course that's a nonsense comparison.

> Here's the current top of the Covid-19 deaths per capita chart: Peru, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czechia, North Macedonia.

I don't know where you got this list from. JHU's database[1] shows Peru and Brazil at the top for the per-capita statistic (not CFR). Brazil, conspicuously, has a COVID-denialist leader, refused a general lockdown, and is currently #3 in the world for deaths.

[1]: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

Edited my comment to include a link. The chart you've linked only include the "twenty countries currently most affected by COVID-19 worldwide", whatever that means. Probably something to do with current cases or recent deaths. The numbers I found match that chart for the countries which are on it, but Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czechia, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria just weren't included even though they would've been higher than Brazil if they were. Edited: as someone pointed out, there's a sortable table further down which gives the same ranking as I quoted, except it includes a couple of additional micro-countries with only a few thousand people.

(Also, Brazil is probably pretty representative of South America as a whole, they just seem to have better testing than other countries there and likely report more of their Covid deaths than others. I know a while ago, there was some analysis suggesting Mexico had more Covid deaths than Brazil with a substantially lower population and was just massively under-reporting them due to missing testing.)

Are you certain about how those countries are reporting?

Check the Johns Hopkins link again (as an aside, JHU is the data source for the link whihch you've posted)

Underneath that chart they break down data for many more than those 20 countries.

>leading an otherwise-developed country to top the chart in pandemic deaths

The US is currently 74th of 203 countries when counting new covid cases per capita in the last week. So my perception is people have mostly switched to shaming the US for "vaccine nationalism" and the like, and downplaying accusations of poor handling of the epidemic.

(https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/weekly-trends/#wee...)