Excess deaths are defined as the difference between the observed number of deaths reported and the average expected number of deaths based on the same time periods. The upper threshold is the highest predicted number of expected deaths.
A published research study found nearly 23 percent more people than expected died from March 1, 2020 to Jan. 2, 2021 in the United States. More than 70 percent of these deaths were attributed to COVID-19.
Ripple effects from the COVID-19 pandemic also caused an increase in fatalities. A study at the University of California San Francisco projected 30,231 excessive deaths from spring 2020 to spring 2021 related to a rise in unemployment.
A study at the University of California San Francisco examined the death rates related to pandemic-related unemployment. It projected the spring 2020 rise in unemployment would lead to 30,231 excess deaths within the 25 to 64-year-old age range in the following 12 months.
“Adequately responding to the pandemic involves not only controlling COVID-19 cases and deaths but also addressing indirect social and economic consequences,” said Ellicott Matthay, a postdoctoral scholar with the Center for Health and Community at UCSF, in a paper published by the American Journal of Public Health.
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