The deaths per million is the best number. The cumulative deaths in the US is flattening and if you look at the Worldometer log number for the US, it looks like it will be 60,000 total. That’s better than the original models by a good bit.
Having said that,if you take out NY and NJ, which are the worst cases in the world by deaths per million, the US is about where Germany is; way down the developed country list.
Maybe NY, NJ area got a different virus.
There is conjecture that the NYC virus came in from Europe, since NYC is a travel gateway,
whereas California may have gotten cultivars from Asia since they are the Western travel gateway.
Other possible explanations involve the rate at which the virus may have mutated.
Viri mutate readily due to their RNA simplicity, generally a single strand of genetic code.
Generally speaking, subsequent mutant cultivars of viri become less fatal as they mutate.