Death in the G7 - let's compare US and Japan 🧵

The US mortality rate has (thus far) been SEVENTEEN times higher than Japan's

That's cumulative reported COVID-19 mortality per 100k people.

Excess deaths? --> next chart

1/3 https://t.co/U0zyNgAcGA

The US excess mortality rate has (thus far) been 46x times higher than that of Japan.

Source: The Economist's excess death model, mid-point estimates, cumulative rates per 100k people

https://t.co/AH33PpEUX4

2/3 https://t.co/FnXQSs4VOZ

Finally, here's the last observation of the data (as of today) in absolute and relative terms for COVID-19 deaths and excess deaths.

3/3 https://t.co/Wg47sUn7MH

Let me also add:

Japan's performance stands out even more given it has the 2nd oldest population in the world (after Monaco)

35% of its 126 million people are above 60.

Quite a feat given the age-discriminating nature of COVID https://t.co/tu2oYPLMf5

For Japan, this must have helped: low prevalence of obesity; low intake of red meat, esp saturated fatty acids; high intakes of fish, specifically n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, plant foods such as soybeans, and nonsugary beverages such as green tea.

https://t.co/O4wbQLvyjp

But most of all there is of course this.

https://t.co/gQADVrcbiz

Not sure about mortality among retired Sumo wrestlers, who carry 2 risk factors: age & obesity.

If mortality is low among them, the simplest explanation for Japan’s stellar performance is the common sense & discipline of its people on the infection side

https://t.co/bhyyEfG0fv