R&I – FS
There have been more than 1m excess deaths in the US during the pandemic, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The deaths are mainly attributable to Covid-19, as well as conditions that may have resulted from delayed medical care and overwhelmed health systems.
At least 923,000 Americans have died from confirmed Covid cases, according to the CDC. Other causes of death above the normally expected number have included heart disease, hypertension and Alzheimer’s disease. Some Americans also die months after their initial Covid diagnosis, because the virus created other fatal complications.
At least 923,000 Americans have died from confirmed Covid cases, according to the CDC. Other causes of death above the normally expected number have included heart disease, hypertension and Alzheimer’s disease. Some Americans also die months after their initial Covid diagnosis, because the virus created other fatal complications. Excess deaths are calculated by looking at previous years’ fatalities. In 2019, there were 2.8m deaths in the US; in 2020, it was approximately 3.3m.
“All-cause excess mortality is one of the most reliable and unbiased ways to look at the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School. “It does not rely on how many tests were done or on subjective cause of death designations.”
While cause of death can sometimes be difficult to ascertain, and political pressures can lead to miscounting, excess deaths can indicate the broad scope of a health emergency.
“Whenever we hear that another 100,000 people died of Covid, there’s a reliable chorus of naysayers who claim that these deaths would’ve happened anyway,” Faust said. “Excess deaths cuts through that, because it’s about reporting whether the total number of deaths is out of the ordinary.”
Rawr
Article URL : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/17/us-excess-deaths-pandemic-cdc