COVID-19 not the sole cause of excess U.S. deaths in 2020

April 13, 2021

In 2017, the United States suffered an estimated 401,000 total excess deaths, those beyond the "normal" number of deaths expected to have occurred. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 376,504 deaths related to COVID-19 in 2020. In 2020, 4.41 million years of life were lost to COVID-19, yet that's only about one-third of the 13.02 million life years lost to excess mortality in the United States in 2017. Excess mortality in the United States in the 21st century, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). Excess mortality in the United States in the 21st century,(2021).