Thread by @WhitneyEpi

Very important new @CDCMMWR report on US mortality in 2020. It's short. You can read it pretty quickly.

Or just look at the graphs at the end. They tell the story. It is profoundly sad.

cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/6…

@HeidiKKim The excess deaths among the Asian subgroup in April and May are striking.

Part of the spin I’m seeing online is the 1/3 of deaths not #COVID19. But the timing and patterning of these so close to the COVID19 deaths that I suspect many actually are miscoded deaths that really were COVID. What do y’all think?

3/ authors being very circumspect: “These results provide information about the degree to which COVID-19 deaths MIGHT BE UNDERASCERTAINED & inform efforts to prevent mortality directly or indirectly associated with the COVID-19 pandemic...”

4/ But a clear takeaway is that our official numbers of #COVID19 deaths are a major undercount:

5/ “...deaths from other causes might represent misclassified COVID-19–related deaths or deaths indirectly caused by the pandemic.”

6/ “Specifically, deaths from circulatory diseases, Alzheimer disease and dementia, and respiratory diseases have increased in 2020 relative to past years...it is unclear to what extent these represent misclassified COVID-19 deaths or deaths indirectly related to the pandemic..”