Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Far More Americans Have Died Of COVID Than Counted So Far, CDC Finds
The New York Times: The Pandemic’s Real Toll? 300,000 Deaths, And It’s Not Just From The Coronavirus
The coronavirus pandemic caused nearly 300,000 deaths in the United States through early October, federal researchers said on Tuesday. The new tally includes not only deaths known to have been directly caused by the coronavirus, but also roughly 100,000 fatalities that are indirectly related and would not have occurred if not for the virus. The study, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is an attempt to measure “excess deaths” — deaths from all causes that statistically exceed those normally occurring in a certain time period. The total included deaths from Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, that were misclassified or missed altogether. (Rabin, 10/20)
The Washington Post: The Coronavirus Pandemic Has Caused Nearly 300,000 More Deaths Than Expected In A Typical Year
The CDC said the novel coronavirus, which causes covid-19, has taken a disproportionate toll on Latinos and Blacks, as previous analyses have noted. But the CDC also found, surprisingly, that it has struck 25- to 44-year-olds very hard: Their “excess death” rate is up 26.5 percent over previous years, the largest change for any age group. It is not clear whether that spike is caused by the shift in covid-19 deaths toward younger people between May and August or deaths from other causes, the CDC said. (Bernstein, 10/20)
STAT: CDC Reports Nearly 300,000 'Excess Deaths' In The U.S. Amid Pandemic
Some people who die might never have been tested for the disease, for example, and if people die at home without receiving medical care, they might not make it into the confirmed data. To address that, researchers often look to what are called excess deaths — the number of deaths overall during a particular period of time compared to how many people die during the stretch in a normal year. Now, in the most updated count to date, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that nearly 300,000 more people in the United States died from late January to early October this year compared the average number of people who died in recent years. (Joseph, 10/20)
