A new report from the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Earth Institute of Columbia University found that 130,000 to 210,000 US fatalities from the coronavirus were avoidable if the federal government acted sooner to address the pandemic.

“Through comparative analysis and applying proportional mortality rates, we estimate that at least 130,000 deaths and perhaps as many as 210,000 could have been avoided with earlier policy interventions and more robust federal coordination and leadership,” the report declares.

The report notes that the US has experienced more than twice the population fatality rate of its neighbor to the north, Canada.  The US also has 50 times the per capita fatality rate as Japan, which has a significantly older population.

Comparing US response to those of six similar countries–South Korea, Japan, Germany, Canada, France and Australia–the researchers looked at the actions undertaken by those nations and modeled how much lower the American fatality rate would’ve been if those actions would have been adopted by the US.

Noting health care access and quality disparities, the report puts much of the fault for the increased mortality rate on the poor response of the Trump Administration.

“Many of the underlying factors amplifying the pandemic’s deadly impact have existed long before the novel coronavirus first arrived in Washington state on January 20th – a fractured healthcare system, inequitable access to care, and immense health, social and racial disparities among America’s most vulnerable groups,” the report outlines.  “Compounding this is an Administration that has publicly denigrated its own public health officials – and science more generally — thereby hamstringing efforts by its vaunted public health service to curb the pandemic’s spread.”