Study finds many COVID deaths misclassified as natural causes

A recent study reveals that the increased mortality rates attributed to chronic illnesses and natural causes were, in fact, caused by Covid-19 infections.

Excess mortality offers an insight into the number of deaths that likely would not have happened if not for the pandemic. However, there is still limited evidence on whether these additional deaths can be attributed directly to the SARS-CoV-2 virus itself, or if they resulted from other pandemic-related factors such as disruptions in healthcare services, socioeconomic challenges, or the effects of Covid vaccinations.

The study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) provides the first concrete data showing that many of these excess deaths were indeed uncounted Covid deaths.

Published in the journal PNAS, the study compared reported Covid deaths to excess deaths due to non-Covid natural causes, such as diseases and chronic illnesses.

The findings revealed that an increases in non-Covid excess deaths occurred at the same time or in the month prior to increases in reported Covid deaths in most US counties.

"Our findings show that many Covid-19 deaths went uncounted during the pandemic. Surprisingly, these undercounts persisted well beyond the initial phase of the pandemic," said Dr. Andrew Stokes, Associate Professor of global health at BUSPH.

The temporal correlation between reported Covid deaths and excess deaths reported to non-Covid natural causes offers insight into the causes of these deaths.

“If the primary explanation for these deaths were health care interruptions and delays in care, the non-Covid excess deaths would likely occur after a peak in reported Covid-19 deaths and subsequent interruptions in care,” said lead author Eugenio Paglino, doctoral student studying demography and sociology at UPenn.

"However, this pattern was not observed nationally or in any of the geographic subregions we assessed," concluded Paglino.

Reference: https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2024/new-analysis-reveals-many-excess-deaths-attributed-to-natural-causes-are-actually-uncounted-covid-19-deaths/