Thread by @DrEricDing

DEVASTATING—Texas power grid outage killed over >4x the number of people (700) than officially reported (151), based on excess deaths, according to BuzzFeed.

Tragic. Texas needs new leadership—@BetoORourke LFG. buzzfeednews.com/article/petera…

2) “This astonishing toll exposes the full consequence of officials’ neglect in preventing the power grid’s collapse despite repeated warnings of its vulnerability to cold weather, as well as the state’s failure to reckon with the magnitude of the crisis that followed.”

3) “Many of the uncounted victims of the storm and power outages were already medically vulnerable. But without the intense cold and stress they experienced during the crisis, many of these people could still be alive today.”

4) “The BuzzFeed News analysis of deaths during the storm is based on mortality data from the CDC. It relies on a method called “excess deaths” analysis, recently used to estimate the full toll of the COVID-19 pandemic.

5) “Our analysis, reviewed by three independent experts, suggests that between 426 and 978 more people than expected died in Texas in the week ending February 20 alone. Our best estimate is that 702 people were killed by the storm that week.

6) “Even the lowest end of the range is almost three times the number officials have acknowledged. Neighboring states that were hit hard by the winter storm but did not experience the widespread power outages seen in Texas did not show a spike in deaths.”