CDC Estimates Over 1 Million Excess Deaths in United States Since COVID-19 Pandemic

Published: 2/17/2022, 4:02:42 PM EST

CDC Estimates Over 1 Million Excess Deaths in United States Since COVID-19 Pandemic — Healthcare workers tend to a patient with COVID-19 at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, Calif., on Jan. 11, 2021. (Ariana Drehsler/AFP via Getty Images)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there have been over 1 million excess deaths in the United States since February 2020 linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to CDC data, which is updated on a weekly basis, the number of excess deaths in the country was 1,045,389 as of Feb. 17.

Excess death is a term used in epidemiology and public health. It refers to the number of people who die from any cause during a specific period of time and is compared with a historical baseline from recent years.

The state with the highest number of excess deaths since February 2020 is California, which accounts for 104,553, followed shortly by Texas, with 98,271 excess deaths, according to the CDC. Hawaii has the lowest number of excess deaths with 1,372.

Total predicted number of excess deaths since 2/1/2020, by state as of Feb. 17, 2022. (CDC) — Total predicted number of excess deaths since 2/1/2020, by state as of Feb. 17, 2022. CDC

The CDC says that estimates of excess deaths "can provide information about the burden of mortality potentially related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including deaths that are directly or indirectly attributed to COVID-19.

"Excess deaths are typically defined as the difference between the observed numbers of deaths in specific time periods and expected numbers of deaths in the same time periods."

The CDC said the excess deaths "were calculated using Farrington surveillance algorithms."

While the majority of the excess deaths are due to COVID-19, an increased number of deaths were also due to a number of other conditions during the pandemic, according to the CDC.

These included heart disease, hypertension, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and a number of other ailments, the CDC said.

For instance, CDC data show that an extra 63,001 people have died since February 2020 of hypertensive diseases and that more than 67,400 people have died due to Alzheimer's or dementia-related illnesses.

Over 30,000 have died from Ischemic heart disease, whereby heart problems are caused by narrowed heart arteries, and 31,809 have died from cerebrovascular disease, which refers to a group of conditions that affect blood flow and the blood vessels in the brain.

More than 2.8 million people died in the United States in 2019, according to final mortality data (pdf) from the National Center for Health Statistics released in December.

Over 3.3 million people died in 2020, as the virus began to spread across the country, of which 377,883 were COVID-19–related deaths according to official data.

"We’ve never seen anything like it," Robert Anderson, chief of the CDC’s mortality statistics branch, told The Washington Post.

An analysis by The Epoch Times of death certificate data from the CDC also showed that deaths among individuals aged 18 to 49 increased more than 40 percent in the 12 months ending October 2021 compared to the same twelve-month period in 2018–2019.

The majority of the deaths were not linked to COVID-19.

While the increase in deaths could be seen across the country, some states experienced a higher rise in deaths than others, with the South, Midwest, and the West Coast seeing steeper hikes among individuals young-to-middle age.

The northeastern states generally saw much milder increases, with New Hampshire seeing no mortality increase and no COVID deaths in those aged 18 to 49.

Delaware saw a 10 percent mortality increase in deaths, of which zero were attributed to COVID-19, and Massachusetts had just a 13 percent rise of which 24 percent were attributed to COVID. Maryland experienced a 16 percent increase, 42 percent of which was attributed to COVID-19.

Public health authorities in several states confirmed to The Epoch Times that they are examining the issue of surging mortality rates among the age group.

The CDC's data show the total number of COVID-19 deaths to the week ending Feb. 12, 2022, at 914,242, with 70,063 so far in 2022 and 458,707 in 2021.

"We did not handle it well. That’s glaringly obvious," Stephen Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, told the Washington Post. "The other countries got hit by the same virus, but no country has experienced the number of deaths we have, and even if you adjust for population, we are among the highest in the world."

Petr Svab contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times