The problem arises when people talk about a single "death rate" without the proper caveats. It is well understood that the infection fatality rate varies with age, from 0.001% for those under 20 to ~10% for those over 80.[1] When you apply this to the entire US population, you get ~0.7%.
[1] https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/suppl/2020/05/12/...