April: U.S. Death Rate From All Causes (Including COVID-19) At Multi-Year LOW

The U.S. crude death rate (mortality from all causes) still remains near multi-year lows despite COVID-19. The CDC tracks deaths attributed to the flu, pneumonia, and all causes on this website. 

You can download the data as verify for yourself: Just go to this CDC website and click the green ‘downloads’ button. They have complete data for total U.S. deaths up until week 14 (week ending April 5th, 2020). On April 5th, the U.S. saw 1,344 COVID-19 deaths, as the number of cases in the U.S. accelerated. 

The overall number of deaths in the U.S., or the crude death rate did not show a correlated rise. 

At the very least, this data shows we need to analyze COVID-19 deaths in the context of the broader U.S. mortality rate from all causes. 

It appears normal deaths are being attributed to COVID-19 if the patient is COVID-19+, even if another underlying chronic cause is responsible.

Those who do die of Coronavirus are already ill, and many of them would die of something, anything that comes along.