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How Many Deaths Due to COVID-19 (So Far)?

I have seen some recent claims that overall deaths in the United States are down compared to years past. But that is comparing previous full years to only part of 2020. That is not a good comparison. Looking at CDC data since 2014, you can see that deaths due to all causes is up significantly this year compared to the last few years. See the graph below.

As population grows over time, more people die, so to count excess deaths on a yearly basis accurately you should adjust for population, so just to keep things simple I’m only going to compare 202 to 2019. Through mid-November in 2019 there were 2,503,286 deaths from all causes. This year, through the same point in time, there have been 2,795,474 deaths from all causes. That is a difference of 292,188. According to Worldometer, the official death toll due to COVID-19 through mid-November is 251,223. As there are many people who were not diagnosed early in the epidemic, the true number of deaths due to COVID-19 through mid-November is probably close to 300,000.

3 thoughts on “How Many Deaths Due to COVID-19 (So Far)?”

  3. Peter

    I don’t think it’s possible to draw the conclusion that this is caused by COVID itself.

    Could it be the additional deaths are due to the lockdown and other measures as a reaction to COVID? Suicides of people losing their business they have built their whole lives? Delayed care of other patients? I know in the Netherlands cancer diagnoses have dropped severely, because of this. As the PCR tests we use in the Netherlands are next to useless, and most deaths have more than 3 causes on their death certificate plus COVID, there is really no way to say how many people have died from COVID…. only with COVID. I know form people I know, who work in hospitals, that their hospital gets paid for every COVID death, so whenever you have a positive test (and many do because of the inaccurate PCR tests) and you die, even for instance in a car crash, they will mark you as a COVID death.

    Taking all of this into account, what would be your take on this chart?

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