As I’ve said before, the actuarial concept of “excess deaths” together with analyzing the numbers of excess deaths is the only way to figure out how many Americans have really died from Covid 19. The following, very interesting paper: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2771841 begins the process. The paper is mathematically sophisticated but the tables are useful for all. Alas, there are no surprises, we have done terrible when matched to comparable countries.
On September 19, 2020, the US reported a total of 198 589 COVID-19 deaths (60.3/100 000), higher than countries with low and moderate COVID-19 mortality but comparable with high-mortality countries (Table 1). For instance, Australia (low mortality) had 3.3 deaths per 100 000 and Canada (moderate mortality) had 24.6 per 100 000. Conversely, Italy had 59.1 COVID-19 deaths per 100 000; Belgium had 86.8 per 100 000. If the US death rates were comparable to Australia, the US would have had 187 661 fewer COVID-19 deaths (94% of reported deaths), and if comparable with Canada, 117 622 fewer deaths (59%).