There’s been a conversation going on for a while. How serious is COVID-19 really, compared to other major causes of death? We found a CNN post updated November 18, 2020 setting COVID-19 deaths in context in the US. We expected this to rate the coronavirus way down from other major killers. However, as we discovered we were up for a few surprises.
A Few Surprises After Setting COVID-19 Deaths in Context
COVID-19 has killed more US residents in ten months than strokes, suicides and car crashes together did in a full year. Of course, we could say all three are avoidable with sensible lifestyles. However, the same applies to coronavirus so it’s a valid comparison. But the difference is the COVID rate is surging while the others are holding steady
Here’s the raw data from CDC and NHTSA as processed in the CNN post. Links to the sources are below.
Heart disease deaths in US in 12 months – 670,000
Cancer deaths in US in 12 months – 612,000
COVID-19 deaths in US in 10 months – 250,000
Stroke deaths in US in 12 months – 142,000
Suicide deaths in US in 12 months – 45,000
Influenza deaths in US in 12 months – 42,000
Car crash deaths in US in 12 months – 24,000
Setting COVID-19 deaths in context like this dispels the first impression ‘it’s just a little thing that will go away’. Sure, it does for most cases, but it has put a quarter million Americans away permanently, and counting. And the same situation, even worse, prevails in other countries.
It would be interesting to know how future generations judge our response to this particular pandemic. And how we adjusted our lifestyles for other infectious diseases that followed, as sure as dawn chased the night.
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Preview Image: Data from CNN Health
