It's mixed. There are a (admittedly small) number of countries in the 'free West' that have had 0 or even negative excess mortality so far.

It's also difficult to compare because autocracies are less likely to release data that makes them look bad (they're too busy building a 'strong collective identity').

Personally I'm incredibly happy to have spent the pandemic in Europe rather than totalitarian regimes. And even though I spent my time between Italy, UK and Slovenia, three of the worst-hit countries.

But obviously different people have different preferences. I'm also young, fit, healthy programmer, so all-in-all very lucky.

I'm a bit older, was pretty fit & healthy and also a programmer. That didn't matter much to the virus though and I can recommend skipping this one.

That's true even if you leave the US out ?

US has a lower death rate than the UK, Italy, Belgium, Czechia, Hungary, and several other European states.