October 02, 2020
The United States and the European Union have comparable population sizes, but the trajectories of their COVID-19 outbreaks in recent months have been vastly different — until now. As new daily coronavirus cases are rising across most US states, many European countries are now experiencing a "second wave" of the coronavirus that has brought Europe's mortality rate closer to that of the US, and led some European governments to reinforce strict lockdown measures. The current situation is a sharp contrast to the disparity seen over the summer, when US cases were spiking across much of the Midwest and South, and European countries seemed to have got the pandemic (mostly) in check due to stricter adherence to social distancing and mask-wearing. Here's a look at the seven-day rolling average of new COVID-19 cases, and three-day rolling averages of new deaths and new deaths per capita in the EU vs the US since March.