US reaches grim milestone of 250,000 coronavirus deaths

[left-of-center2012]

More than a quarter-million Americans have died from complications of COVID-19, the disease caused by a coronavirus that is tearing massive holes in states across the nation, as health experts warn the death toll could double in the coming months. NBC News reported the death toll crossed the 250,000 mark on Wednesday.

Virtually every indicator in the U.S. is flashing bright red alarms: The country has recorded more than 100,000 new cases on every day since the Nov. 3 election. More than 73,000 Americans are being treated in hospitals, an all-time high. Of those, 14,000 are in intensive care units. The number of tests conducted on a given day is rising, but so too is the percentage of those tests that come back positive, a sign that the virus is spreading faster than testing is expanding.

If states were counted individually against other nations, 15 of the 20 worst outbreaks in the world on a per capita basis would be American states. Eight states — the Dakotas, Iowa, Wyoming, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Montana — have worse per capita outbreaks than any other country in the world.

Fourteen states recorded more than 30,000 new cases in the last week. Illinois reported the highest number, 85,742.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/526354-us-reaches-grim-milestone-of-coronavirus-250000-deaths

[Pobeka]

1. Excess deaths at 309,000 according to NY Times analysis as of 11/18/2020

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/05/us/coronavirus-death-toll-us.html

They keep this updated quite frequently.

[left-of-center2012]

2. That's misleading

From your link:
"Our analysis examines deaths from all causes — not just confirmed cases of coronavirus — beginning when the virus took hold."

[Pobeka]

3. What about "excess deaths" do you find misleading?

We have *huge* populations we're working with, years of data showing expected death rates for different demographics by state.

Excess deaths is just a measure of how many more deaths are happening than expected. The analysis is reasonable because we know many deaths are never comfirmed as COVID due to either purposeful clerical omissions (see Florida), or the victims not tested.

[meadowlander]

4. Some of those deaths are still indirectly caused by Covid.

e.g. by someone delaying medical treatment because of fear of catching Covid at the hospital or people who need the ICU or a ventilator for some other reason and treatment is delayed because the unit at their closest hospital is full.