- Researchers say it’s likely that 900,000 people in the United States have died so far from COVID-19.
- Some experts disagree with the findings, while others say they’re probably accurate.
- Experts agree that studying the number of deaths can help determine what steps are most effective when another pandemic strikes.
It’s generally estimated that the number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States has now surpassed 580,000.
However, the real number could be closer to 1 million, according to a new report from the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
IHME researchers say they wanted to create a more realistic picture of COVID-19 deaths by looking at six key drivers of excess deaths that appear to be related to or affected by the pandemic.
Those drivers are:
- total deaths
- increase in deaths due to medical care getting delayed or deferred
- increase in deaths due to mental health disorders
- decrease in deaths due to physical distancing and other measures
- decrease in lower rates of other diseases
- decrease in deaths due to chronic conditions that would have resulted in death if not for COVID-19
Testing capacity was also noted as an issue.
“Deaths that are directly due to COVID-19 are likely underreported in many locations, particularly in settings where COVID-19 testing is in short supply,” the study authors wrote. “Most excess mortality is likely misclassified COVID-19 deaths.”
Source: healthline