This is infuriatingly stupid and dishonest.

The answer is because we don't, and media outlets that suggest otherwise cannot be trusted to cover this topic.

Several large countries are clearly lying and undercounting. https://twitter.com/TheLeadCNN/status/1248364878257098754

Tapper throwing in a side comment about how there are some questions about the numbers doesn't change that this is clearly wrong and actively misinforms the audience.

Western Europe is ~ same size and they have a much higher % of deaths. Several other countries are just lying.

I'm serious. This was bad a few weeks ago, but journalists and outlets still doing this are intentionally lying to their audiences at this point and should lose all credibility covering this topic.

Italy + France + Spain combined have half our population, but 2.5 as many deaths. They know this so why are they relying on obvious falsehoods and undercounting from countries like China, Russia, Iran etc. to create a false narrative about how bad the U.S. is doing?