There were at least 322,306 more deaths in 2020 than in 2019, which is about the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19.
Why do some people still not understand just how many people have died with COVID-19?
Why do some folks continue to push the idea that people aren’t really dying with COVID-19? It makes it easier to convince you that you don’t need to wear a mask or get a COVID-19 vaccine…
The usual suspects…
How Many People Have Really Died With COVID-19?
If you are confused or doubt just how deadly COVID-19 has been, one easy way to estimate how many people have died with COVID-19 is to compare year-to-year total deaths.
For example, just over 2.8 million people died in 2018 and 2019.
In 2019, a total of 2,854,838 resident deaths were registered in the United States—15,633 more deaths than in 2018.
How does that compare to 2020?
Before you say that there were 2,913,144 deaths in 2020, keep in mind that this data doesn’t include January 2020…
Not surprisingly, there were far fewer deaths in 2018 and 2019…
We add these 264,000 deaths from January 2020 to the 2,913,144 deaths from February to December 2020 to get our total for the year.
Using complete year counts:
2019 total deaths – 2,854,838
2020 total deaths – 3,177,144
Leaving you with 322,306 more deaths in 2020 than in 2019.
Which is just about the count of COVID-19 deaths that experts have posted.
If you still aren’t convinced that these deaths have been caused by COVID-19, if not COVID-19, then what has caused all of these extra deaths?
“Excess deaths provide an estimate of the full COVID-19 burden and indicate that official tallies likely undercount deaths due to the virus.”
Estimation of Excess Deaths Associated With the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States, March to May 2020
The count is even more startling if you understand that many experts think that we are under-counting COVID-19 deaths!
“Simon and colleagues suggest that it is critical to consider that for every death, an estimated 9 family members are affected, such as with prolonged grief or symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. In other words, approximately 3.5 million people could develop major mental health needs. This does not account for the thousands of health care workers in hospitals and nursing homes who have been witness to the unimaginable morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19.”
Sure, COVID-19 is much more deadly if you have risk factors, but many people still underestimate their risks of getting and dying from COVID-19.
With a case-fatality rate between 1 and 3% in the United States, that means a lot of people with COVID-19 have been dying.
The bottom line is that COVID-19 is indeed deadly, with the possibility of serious long-term effects for many who survive.
“While most persons with COVID-19 recover and return to normal health, some patients can have symptoms that can last for weeks or even months after recovery from acute illness.”
Long-Term Effects of COVID-19
And since we now have safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines that can help end the pandemic, you know what to do.
Over 500,000 people have now died with COVID-19 in the United States.
All of the misinformation about COVID-19 deaths from folks pushing propaganda is easily debunked if you do even a little bit of research.
We are over six months into the pandemic and if there is one thing folks should understand, it is that there have been a lot of deaths from COVID-19.
The number of COVID-19 deaths in the US literally doubled in just a few months this summer, but that’s hard to see on this chart because of the scale she used. #propaganda
Unfortunately, propaganda and misinformation about COVID-19 deaths makes that hard to see for some folks.
Misinformation about COVID-19 Deaths
Fortunately, you can keep from being fooled if you check the data on COVID-19 yourself.
Remember, data doesn’t usually lie.
Melissa Floyd’s graph on daily new COVID-19 deaths actually doesn’t paint the rosy picture she wants. While daily deaths have been down from the start of the pandemic, they then rose again and have just recently declined from those peaks in the past few weeks.
But it can certainly be manipulated or misrepresented though.
See how the type of graph representation makes all the difference?
That’s why some folks don’t realize that even if COVID-19 deaths have decreased a bit in the last few weeks, there are still over 1,200 deaths a day in the United States!
What other misinformation might you hear about COVID-19 deaths?
This should be big news, as these folks are fact checking their own propaganda! They even highlight the explanation from the CDC that “For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned.”
Have you heard that only 6% of COVID-19 deaths are actually caused by COVID-19???
“For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.”
Weekly Updates by Select Demographic and Geographic Characteristics
It’s not true.
The CDC was just saying that people who die with COVID-19 often have other comorbid conditions, such as cancer, obesity, and diabetes, etc. But these aren’t just high risk conditions that they had before they got COVID-19.
They include all of the “conditions contributing to deaths where COVID-19 was listed on the death certificate,” including things like respiratory arrest, cardiac arrest, and sepsis, etc. It’s the why you died with COVID-19…
Other propaganda and misinformation about COVID-19 deaths include that:
COVID-19 death rates have been inflated and hospitals are reporting all deaths as COVID-19 related to make more money
routine use of hydroxychloroquine would reduce COVID-19 deaths
the United States has one of the lowest rates of COVID-19 deaths in the world
the CDC used flu and pneumonia deaths to inflate the COVID-19 death count
in the middle of the pandemic, the CDC reduced the COVID-19 death toll
the flu is killing more people than COVID-19
all non-COVID-19 deaths have increased during the pandemic because of lockdowns
kids aren’t dying from COVID-19
the strategy in Sweden proves that we could have done much less and had the same number of deaths
Don’t believe any of it (see below – all of the claims have been debunked over and over again) or the folks that are steering you away from the truth – that COVID-19 is a serious, life-threatening disease, especially for those who are high risk.
Just look at Sweden…
“More than 5,500 people have died with Covid-19 in this country of just 10 million. It is one of the highest death rates relative to population size in Europe, and by far the worst among the Nordic nations. Unlike Sweden, the rest all chose to lock down early in the pandemic.”
Did Sweden’s coronavirus strategy succeed or fail?
They did much less and have far more deaths than their neighboring countries.
And remember that the high number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States could have been even higher, in the millions, if we had done less.
Breaking News – The latest report from the CDC lists at least 1,742 pediatric COVID-19 deaths and 71 MISC deaths. (see below)
You have likely heard that COVID-19 is not supposed to make children sick, so what’s with the reports that kids are dying with COVID-19?
“Whereas most COVID-19 cases in children are not severe, serious COVID-19 illness resulting in hospitalization still occurs in this age group.”
Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Children — United States, February 12–April 2, 2020
So far, while only about 16% of cases in the United States have occurred in children and teens who are less than 18 years old, many of those “pediatric COVID-19 cases were hospitalized.”
Some were even admitted to the ICU and tragically, many have died.
That makes it very hard to understand why some folks are still downplaying how COVID is affecting kids.
Are Kids Dying With COVID-19?
How many kids?
So far, as of mid-August, there have been over 6,433,794 COVID-19 deaths worldwide (all ages), including over 1,026,757 deaths in the United States (all ages).
And many of those deaths have been in children, including children who were previously healthy.
It’s important to note that some these recent COVID-19 deaths in children are still being investigated, but according to reports they include:
a teenager in California who did not have any preexisting conditions (being investigated by the CDC to see if from COVID-19)
a six-week old infant in Connecticut who tested positive forSARS-CoV-2 during postmortem testing – the medical examiner later listed “unsafe sleep in bassinet with soft bedding” as the reason for the baby’s death
a 22-week old premature baby whose mother with COVID-19 went into premature labor (in general, the survival rate at 22 weeks is extremely low, improving as you get closer to 24 to 25 weeks)
a 13-year-old in Colorado who had an underlying seizure disorder
a 5-year-old in Detroit, Michigan – the daughter of two area first responders
three children in Louisiana, including two children who were too young to be vaccinated
Experts have still not confirmed that COVID-19 caused all of these deaths.
Kids are dying with COVID-19, with Texas having the most pediatric COVID deaths.
Still, the CDC reports that there have been at least 1,742 COVID-19 deaths in children in the United States and cases are on the rise in many areas.
The latest report from the CDC lists at least 1,742 pediatric COVID-19 deaths.
While there are far fewer COVID-19 deaths in children than in adults, the number of deaths is still very concerning.
“Among the 121 decedents, 30 (25%) were previously healthy (no reported underlying medical condition), 91 (75%) had at least one underlying medical condition, and 54 (45%) had two or more underlying medical conditions.”
SARS-CoV-2–Associated Deaths Among Persons Aged <21 Years — United States, February 12–July 31, 2020
