has one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates anywhere in the world, even though the nation has recorded more deaths from the coronavirus than any other country.

also has a mortality rate per 100,000 about twice that of Canada.

Rather than the mortality rate, Trump has been fixated on the percentage of people who die after contracting COVID-19, a figure called the case fatality rate. .

“You said we had the worst mortality rate in the world, and we have the best.”.

In an interview on “Axios on HBO” broadcast Monday, Trump was challenged by journalist Jonathan Swan when he said “the United States is lowest in numerous categories, we’re lower than the world, we’re lower than Europe.”.

When Swan asked Trump to clarify, Trump handed Swan a chart, revealing that he was referencing the case fatality rate.

does have a relatively low case fatality rate of 3.3 percent, compared to countries like Canada (7.5 percent), the United Kingdom (15.1 percent), Italy (14.1 percent) and France (13.3 percent).

Among the 20 countries most affected by COVID-19 in the world according to data compiled by Hopkins, the U.S.

Amesh Adjala, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, said case fatality is not a bad statistic by itself, but it can't be compared to the actual number of deaths per capita.

“Case fatality rate is important and the fact that it is lower in some countries is really reflective of the sophistication of the medical system, adeptness of critical care physicians, and what segment of the population is getting infected,” Adjala said. .

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the mortality rate measures the frequency of occurrence of death in a defined population— in this case, deaths per 100,000 people, which includes both confirmed cases and healthy people.

Among the 20 countries most affected by COVID-19 in the world right now, the U.S.

“We also have one of the lowest case fatality rates —below the average of the world and below Europe — and that shows that our therapeutics like Remdesivir, convalescent plasma, and Dexamethasone are working."