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Trump’s health secretary suggests high US death toll due to Americans being unhealthy

Donald Trump’s health secretary has suggested the high number of coronavirus deaths in the US is linked to a large number of Americans with “greater risk profiles”.

Alex Azar, the health and human services secretary, was asked on Sunday why the US appeared to have a disproportionately high number of deaths compared to the rest of the world.

Mr Azar replied that the US population had “significant unhealthy comorbidities that do make many individuals in our communities, in particular African American, minority communities, particularly at risk here, because of significant underlying disease, health disparities, and disease comorbidities.”

“That is an unfortunate legacy in our healthcare system that we certainly do need to address,” he said.