Nearly 99 percent of ‘Covid deaths’ reported by the CDC each week are not primarily caused by the virus, official data shows.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Covid dashboard shows just 1.7 percent of the 324 Covid deaths registered in the week ending August 19 had the coronavirus as the primary cause of death.
The figures suggest just a handful of American lives are being lost directly to the virus each week. For comparison, the virus was behind one in three ‘Covid deaths’ at America’s pandemic peak in 2021.
The primary or underlying cause of death is defined as the disease, situation or event that initiated the chain of events directly resulting in death.
Just 1.7 percent of the 324 Covid deaths during the week ending Aug. 19 listed the virus as the primary cause of death
The primary or underlying cause of death is defined as the disease, situation or event that initiated the chain of events directly resulting in death. PICTURED: People wearing masks wait to enter the Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, in July 2020
Complications of the primary cause of death are usually considered secondary causes when doctors register a death certificate.
For example, Covid could be listed as a secondary cause of death when the virus puts too much stress on a person with a pre-existing heart condition.
The primary cause of death would be listed as heart disease, with Covid listed as a contributing cause.
The percentage of Covid deaths in the week ending Aug. 19 represents a slight increase from the previous week and continues a five-week upward trend, but is a drastic decline from the peak of the pandemic, when 30 percent of deaths listed Covid as the primary cause.
While the CDC has not reported what the primary cause of death was in cases where Covid was the secondary factor, separate data from the agency shows thus far in August, the largest cause of death in the US has been cancer, followed by diseases of the heart.
Covid data shows Washington, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Maryland and New York all have higher rates of deaths due to Covid. Maryland and Florida have the highest, at 3.4 percent.
Washington, Tennessee, North Carolina and New York all hover around 2 percent.
More than two dozen states have experienced just one to nine deaths due to Covid in the week ending on Aug. 19
Data also shows the death rate is slightly higher among women than men, and death rates are highest in people 75 years and older.
The new Covid data will be reassuring at a time when panic is rising across the US as highly transmissible new Covid variants circulate, leading to more infections and hospitalizations and causing the reimplementation of some Covid mandates.
New variants EG.5, or Eris, and BA.8.26, or Pirola, have been detected in several countries around the globe and in the US recently.
These variants are highly mutated and thought to be better at avoiding vaccine and natural immunity, causing more infections.
Infections appear to have doubled across the US amid the emergence of these variants and hospital admissions among people with the virus have risen for the fifth week in a row – but still remain at near-historic lows.
Crucially, however, Covid deaths are not rising quickly.
The panic about a Covid upswing last week saw the Hollywood movie studio Lionsgate reinforce mask mandates, asking its employees to don face coverings at its Santa Monica, California offices. However, just several days later, the movie studio reversed its decision.
The above graph shows the percent of positive Covid cases (tan line) and the weekly number of new Covid hospitalizations (blue bars) as of the week ending Aug. 12
Rutgers University in New Jersey and Morris Brown College in Georgia, both announced last week face masks will once again be required for staff and students.
Additionally, Kaiser Permanente hospital in Santa Rosa, California, and Upstate Community Hospital in Syracuse, New York, have both brought back mask mandates for doctors, nurses, patients and visitors.
Last week in Kentucky, the Lee County School District canceled classes less than two weeks after opening because nearly one-fifth of its students were out sick with a ‘tripledemic’ illness, including Covid, strep throat and the flu.
On Friday, President Biden said his administration will ‘likely’ recommend Americans receive another Covid booster vaccine in the coming weeks.
He signed a proposal on Friday asking Congress for more funding to update Covid vaccines to better protect against the new variants.
However, there is little interest among Americans to receive boosters and only 18 percent of eligible Americans have received any version of a booster.
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