What Is the Burden of Excess Deaths Due to COVID-19 in the U.S.?

Trying to estimate the mortality burden early in a pandemic, when not enough testing is happening, is difficult. One approach is to look at “excess deaths” — the increase in deaths occurring in a population above what would be expected if the pandemic had not occurred. In this study, investigators estimated the excess deaths that occurred in different U.S. states between March 1 and May 30, 2020.

During that period, there were 780,975 total deaths, which is 122,300 more deaths than expected during the same period, based on data from January 5, 2015, through January 25, 2020. A total of 95,235 deaths were reported as being caused by COVID-19. Thus, COVID-19 diagnoses accounted for 78% of the excess deaths, leaving 22% of the deaths unattribut…