Washington (AFP)
The excess mortality linked to the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States was 300,000 people, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) published on Tuesday and which confirms that the official death toll of around 200,000 deaths underestimates the real impact of the virus.
Nearly 200,000 more deaths were officially attributed to Covid-19 between January 26 and October 3, but death statistics show 100,000 more died for other reasons, compared to what was expected based on previous five years based on demographic models.
Those 100,000 additional deaths could be deaths that should have been attributed to the coronavirus, but were not due to misdiagnosis or lack of testing.
Or they could include deaths from indirect causes of the pandemic, for example people who died of heart disease, Alzheimer's and dementia, or respiratory patients, and who were unable or unwilling to make it to the hospital. hospital, due to the health crisis.
Conversely, it is possible that the number of road accident fatalities has fallen, due to confinements and reduced travel.
In total, studies had already shown that the pandemic had increased the number of deaths in the United States by about 20% compared to the mortality expected this year.
But racial disparities are very important, like everything related to health.
Among Hispanics, the increase in mortality in 2020 is + 53.6%, among black residents it is 34.6%, while among whites it is 11.9%, according to the CDC.
By age, mortality actually fell among those under 25, by 2%, but increased in all other groups, with a record high of + 26.5% among those aged 25-44.
© 2020 AFP