Source: Health Polity Institute of Ohio
The U.S. saw remarkable increases in the death rates for heart disease, diabetes, and some other common killers in 2020, and experts believe a big reason may be that people stayed away from the hospital for fear of catching COVID-19 (Source: “U.S. Deaths from Heart Disease and Diabetes Climbed amid COVID,” Associated Press, June 9, 2021).
The death rates — recently posted online by federal health authorities — add to the growing body of evidence that the number of lives lost directly or indirectly to the coronavirus in the U.S. is far greater than the officially reported COVID-19 death toll of nearly 600,000 in 2020-21.
Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that nearly 3.4 million Americans died in 2020, an all-time record. Of those deaths, more than 345,000 were directly attributed to COVID-19. The CDC also provided the numbers of deaths for some of the leading causes of mortality, including the nation’s top two killers, heart disease and cancer.
Earlier research done by demographer Kenneth Johnson at the University of New Hampshire found that an unprecedented 25 states, including Ohio, saw more deaths than births overall last year (most states typically have more births than deaths).