Nearly 99 percent of the “Covid deaths” reported weekly by the CDC are not primarily caused by the virus, official data shows.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Covid dashboard shows that only 1.7 percent of the 324 Covid deaths recorded in the week ending Aug. 19 had coronavirus as the leading cause of death.
The figures show that only a handful of victims in the weekly figure have actually died from Covid. By comparison, the virus was responsible for one in three “Covid deaths” during the US pandemic peak in 2021.
The primary or underlying cause of death is defined as the illness, situation, or event that initiated the chain of events that led directly to death. Consequences or complications of the primary cause of death are usually considered a secondary cause of death
Only 1.7 percent of the 324 Covid deaths in the week ending August 19 listed the virus as the leading cause of death
For example, Covid could be listed as a secondary cause of death when the virus causes too much stress in a person with pre-existing heart disease.
The primary cause of death was said to be heart disease, with Covid being the contributing cause.
The rate of Covid deaths in the week ending August 19 represents a slight increase from the previous week and continues a five-week upward trend, but is a drastic drop from the peak of the pandemic, when 30 percent of Covid deaths as the most important. 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 The research shows that the leading cause of death in the US so far in August has been cancer, followed by heart disease.
The new Covid data will be reassuring at a time when panic is mounting in the US as highly transmissible new Covid variants are circulating, leading to increased infections and hospitalizations and the re-implementation of some Covid mandates.
New variants EG.5, or Eris, and BA.8.26, or Pirola, have recently been detected in several countries around the world and in the US.
These variants are highly mutated and are believed to be better at avoiding vaccine and natural immunity, causing more infections.
The number of infections in the US appears to have doubled with the emergence of these variants and hospitalizations among people with the virus have risen for a fifth week in a row – but still remain at a near-historic low.
Crucially, however, the number of deaths from Covid is not rising rapidly.
Panic over a Covid resurgence last week caused Hollywood film studio Lionsgate to strengthen mask mandates and ask its employees to wear face coverings in its Santa Monica, California offices. Only a few days later, however, the film studio reversed its decision.
The graph above shows the percentage of positive Covid cases (brown line) and the weekly number of new Covid hospitalizations (blue bars) as of the week ending August 12.
Rutgers University in New Jersey and Morris Brown College in Georgia both announced last week that face masks will once again be mandatory for staff and students.
In addition, 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, Kentucky’s Lee County School District canceled classes less than two weeks after opening because nearly a fifth of its students were sick with a “tripledemic” illness, including Covid, strep throat and the flu.
On Friday, President Biden said his administration will “likely” recommend that Americans receive another Covid booster vaccine in the coming weeks.
He signed a bill Friday asking Congress for more funding to update Covid vaccines to better protect against the new variants.
However, there is little interest among Americans in receiving boosters and only 18 percent of eligible Americans have received some version of a booster.