Of all the frustrating, unhelpful reporting that’s happened during the current health scare, most maddening is the constantly repeated statistic about the United States having more deaths than any other country. Yes — the U.S. is also much larger than any of the other countries giving us an honest or accurate count.

Comparing total numbers between countries is useless. That’s like pointing out in horror that the U.S. has 100 times more toilets than Ireland, and wondering why Americans have to use the restroom so much.