COVID-19 Deaths — It’s Different from the Flu
Updated in December to add this paragraph:
Flu info isn’t available on a town basis. Dr. Chan, the state epidemiologist, said in early December that NH loses 40-50 people per season from the flu. We’ve lost over ten times that many since this started.
Total deaths in the 56 weeks from the week ending January 5, 2019 to the week ending July 11:
- Influenza and pneumonia: 63
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 1019
- Other diseases of the respiratory system: 0
Total deaths in the first 28 weeks of 2019 vs. the first 28 weeks of 2020:
Total deaths in 28 weeks of 2019: 6,655
Influenza and pneumonia: 41
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 338
Total deaths in 28 weeks of 2020: 7,179 (includes COVID)
Influenza and pneumonia: 22
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 351
There are 19 fewer influenza/pneumonia cases in 2020 than in 2019. Too low to be relevant.
Do I trust these numbers? No. It’s how the death certificates are written. There has been a lot of discussion about how these deaths have been reported, especially in the early days. We see a lot of adjustments, both up and down, in various areas. So no, these aren’t totally accurate. But these numbers give us an approximation. I believe that the CDC has linked these categories together in their info, presumably for some purpose.
Observation: NH had 11% fewer infectious respiratory disease deaths than the average of the rest of the country.
Summary: In the US, 481,647 people died from a contagious respiratory disease in this time period. That’s 37.7% of all US deaths, more than 1/3 of all US Deaths.
If you pull out the deaths that were reported as “Just Flu” or “Just Pneumonia,” (presuming these are reported correctly!), you get 353,580 cases, or 27.6% of all deaths. That’s more than 1 out of 4 deaths in the US during this time period that has been associated with COVID-19.
And don’t forget the potential impacts on long-term health, and the short and long-term impact on the finances of those who don’t die.
Flu info isn’t available on a town basis. Dr. Chan, the state epidemiologist, said in early December that NH loses 40-50 people per season from the flu. We’ve lost over ten times that many since this started.