There’s another difference. The US healthcare system has strong incentives to find COVID where there is none, or where it’s irrelevant. They get substantially more money from a COVID death than from a normal death. A guy I know lost his friend to a motorcycle accident, but his friend’s death was officially a COVID death.

When you see really strong outliers, you need to at least consider the explanatory power of incentives.

I think the US has mismanaged the crisis, but I also think there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about the numbers.