Originally Posted by
LumberJack
CX500T, I'm curious how you explain away the excess deaths. If this is so overblown, and the reporting is all pumped up, why did so many more people die in 2020 than usual?
CDC National Center for Health Statistics
"Counts of deaths from all causes of death, including COVID-19, are presented. As some deaths due to COVID-19 may be assigned to other causes of deaths (for example, if COVID-19 was not diagnosed or not mentioned on the death certificate), tracking all-cause mortality can provide information about whether an excess number of deaths is observed, even when COVID-19 mortality may be undercounted. Additionally, deaths from all causes excluding COVID-19 were also estimated. Comparing these two sets of estimates — excess deaths with and without COVID-19 — can provide insight about how many excess deaths are identified as due to COVID-19, and how many excess deaths are reported as due to other causes of death. These deaths could represent misclassified COVID-19 deaths, or potentially could be indirectly related to the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., deaths from other causes occurring in the context of health care shortages or overburdened health care systems)."
I've seen this graph a lot. Here's the way I would explain the excess deaths. Look at the orange line between 2018 and 2020. In 2018, there was a hard flu season. We didn't hear much about it because well...flu. Now look at the gap between actual deaths and that orange line over these two years right before COVID kicks in. What does that gap mean? It means that there's a lot of old people walking around for two years because the flu was a lot more mild than usual. Nature hates a departure from the average. COVID wiped out the overage and then some. Anyone think next year's flu season is going to be a harsh one? I'm thinking not because a lot of the folks who would normally be susceptible got nailed in 2020.