There were 2,831,000 deaths in 2018 in the U.S.

[edhopper]

and 2,845,000 in 2019. Deaths year over year in normal years are mostly consistent.

When we get the full national death total from 2020, we will know the true toll of COVID-19.

I expect it to be higher than the reported numbers we have now. Not because of any conspiracy, but just because the reporting has not been completely accurate.

[magicarpet]

1. Many classified deaths "other than Covid" because Trump ie wanted to down play the reality of,...

.... the pandemic so hie re-election effort was not adversely affected.

[FBaggins]

2. That data is already in

About 3.3 million

[WarGamer]

3. link?

CDC reported thru 12/26 it was 3.186

[FBaggins]

4. From the CDC

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm

They do weekly figures and there's some overlap for the start/end of the year... but it's easy enough to extract and the December figures are final enough.

[WarGamer]

5. EDIT

The CDC continues to update it's 2020 numbers well into February...

[FBaggins]

6. Same data

Total deaths in 2020, thru 12/26 were 3.187M according to the CDC

And if you add the final week of the year it's another 82k. Round to one decimal point and you get 3.3 million. If you want to insist on 3.269 I won't quibble.

Less automotive collisions and mask wearing has saved many lives (from regular flu).

Lots of other impacts in there. There are no doubt tens of thousands who died early because normal health care options (cancer screenings, cardiac rehab, etc.) were unavailable. There are also probably quite a few who died of the flu or other respiratory illnesses who were scored as COVID deaths by assumption.

The point is that the exact number of COVID deaths isn't something we can determine... but the official count appears to be roughly accurate. Not much use for those who want to pretend that the figures are vastly inflated... OR for those who think there's a massive undercount.

[WarGamer]

7. yup, thus my edited post. Thx!!

[edhopper]

8. Thanks for the

new data.