Claim
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently claimed during a television interview that the United States "had the highest death rate from COVID of any nation on earth."
The statement quickly spread across social media, with many users repeating it as evidence that the U.S. handled the pandemic worse than every other country.
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| Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with Dana Bash interview on CNN on 2 Aug, 2026 |
Verdict: False
The United States recorded the highest total number of COVID-19 deaths, but it did not have the world's highest COVID-19 death rate when deaths are measured relative to population. Available international data show that Peru had the highest reported per-capita COVID-19 death rate during the pandemic.
What We Found
To verify the claim, we examined international COVID-19 mortality data from recognized public health databases rather than relying solely on total death counts.
COVID-19 deaths can be compared in several ways:
Total deaths (the absolute number of people who died)
Deaths per 100,000 population (per-capita death rate)
Case fatality rate (deaths among confirmed cases)
These measures answer different questions and should not be used interchangeably.
The claim refers specifically to the death rate, which generally means deaths relative to population size.
According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, Peru recorded approximately 665.8 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people between January 2020 and March 2023. During the same period, the United States recorded about 341.1 deaths per 100,000 people, placing it well below Peru and several other countries. These findings were highlighted in a recent PolitiFact fact-check.
Countries including Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and others also recorded higher per-capita COVID-19 mortality than the United States during the pandemic.
Why the Confusion?
The confusion appears to arise from mixing total deaths with death rates.
Because the United States has one of the world's largest populations, it recorded more than 1.1 million reported COVID-19 deaths, the highest total number among all countries during the pandemic.
However, total deaths alone do not indicate how severely a country's population was affected relative to its size. Public health researchers typically compare countries using deaths per 100,000 population to account for differences in population size.
What Do Official Data Show?
Johns Hopkins University's global COVID-19 database—widely used by researchers during the pandemic—shows that Peru experienced the highest reported COVID-19 mortality rate per capita.
Similarly, public health agencies such as the U.S. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC) report mortality using population-adjusted rates because they provide a more meaningful comparison across populations.
While different organizations may use varying methodologies—such as excess mortality estimates or confirmed COVID-19 deaths—the available international datasets do not support the claim that the United States had the world's highest COVID-19 death rate.
Why Accurate Comparisons Matter
Statements about pandemic outcomes can be misleading if they fail to distinguish between absolute numbers and rates.
A country with a much larger population may record the highest total number of deaths while still having a lower mortality rate than several smaller countries.
Using per-capita rates allows researchers to compare the relative impact of COVID-19 across countries more accurately.
Conclusion
The claim that the United States had the highest COVID-19 death rate of any country is false.
Our review of internationally recognized COVID-19 data found that Peru had the highest reported per-capita COVID-19 death rate during the main years of the pandemic. Although the United States recorded the largest total number of COVID-19 deaths, it did not have the highest death rate when adjusted for population.
Sources
PolitiFact – RFK Jr. is wrong. Peru had the highest COVID-19 death rate, not the U.S.
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