Curious - if the US is “doing poorly”, what does “doing well” look like?
That is hard to define and measure. Over 40% of the US population is obese. Over 10% of the population has diagnosed diabetes and 80 million more Americans are pre-diabetic. If the population was less obese and if fewer people had diabetes and other associated chronic conditions, would the effects of a COVID-19 on the population be less severe? Intuitively I would say yes although I freely admit I could be wrong. Maybe the key to fighting off COVID-19 is more obesity with the associated chronic conditions.
And yes, pistolpete, heart disease is also rampant. People with heart disease contracting COVID-19 is not a good combination and heart disease rates are rising with the obesity rate - go figure. There isn't a vaccine for heart disease because, like diabetes, heart disease is driven by lifestyle. Be thankful you are in good health so things like the COVID virus are easily fought off.
To be clear I'm referring to type-2 diabetes.