The media coverage of COVID-19 infections and deaths by country has been running along the bottom of our TV screens every day. But what do the bare numbers and their interpretations in media stories mean without context?
The media stories are strongly influenced by the political orientation of the particular media outlet. For example, the criticism of the US, and particularly its President, has usually shown the US as the country with the highest total number of deaths in the world. Is this criticism valid? Well, that depends upon how you look at it.
Deaths Per Million People
I look at it on a per million population basis, using the numbers from Worldometer. Leaving aside some outlier countries with tiny populations, the developed countries with reasonable statistics are ranked below.
