US EditionMore than 150,000 Uncounted COVID-19 Deaths Occurred Early in the Pandemic, a Study Finds
Researchers used machine learning to uncover 150,000 unrecognized COVID deaths, mostly among marginalized groups, raising the 2020–2021 death toll to nearly one million in the U.S.
- On Wednesday, researchers published a study in Science Advances estimating between 150,000 and 160,000 unrecognized COVID-19 deaths on top of 840,251 officially reported fatalities in 2020 and 2021.
- Marginalized communities in Alabama, Oklahoma, and South Carolina experienced the highest undercounting rates, as testing barriers and fragmented death investigation systems prevented accurate diagnosis outside hospitals.
- Using machine learning to analyze death certificates, researchers estimated that for every five recognized COVID-19 deaths, one additional death went unmarked due to low testing availability early in the pandemic.
- Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, founding director of the Boston University Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Policy and Research, said "This work is important because our ability to detect and correctly assign deaths" shapes pandemic response.
- Katherine Hempstead, senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, called for standardizing death investigation, noting geographic variations reduced accuracy of national surveillance data and pandemic response.
53 Articles
53 Articles
US COVID-19 Death Count Higher Than Previously Known: Study
More COVID-19 deaths occurred in the United States than were previously known, researchers said in a new paper. The researchers said in the study, published March 18 by Science Advances, that they identified 150,000 to 160,000 likely deaths from COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021 that had not been previously recognized. Some 1.2 million deaths are attributed to COVID-19 on death certificates through May 7, 2026, according to the Centers for Disease Contr…
Researchers use AI to reveal the true scale of COVID-19 mortality in the US
A machine learning model applied to US death certificate data estimated that over 155,000 COVID-19 deaths were unrecognized between March 2020 and December 2021, suggesting total mortality was about 19% higher than official counts. These undercounted deaths disproportionately affected marginalized populations, including racial minorities, lower-income groups, and residents of the Southern United States.
Early COVID-19 pandemic death toll much higher than official count: Study
A study published Wednesday shows that the early U.S. death toll during the COVID-19 pandemic was higher than previously recorded. The journal Science Advances found that more than 155,000 unrecognized additional deaths outside of hospitals between March 2020 and December 2021 likely went uncounted. This suggests that 15.6 percent of deaths went uncounted, as the…
More Than 150K Early COVID Deaths Were Uncounted
The COVID-19 pandemic's early death toll was much higher than the official US count, according to a new study that spotlights dramatic disparities in the uncounted deaths. About 840,000 COVID-19 deaths were reported on death certificates in 2020 and 2021. But a group of researchers, using an algorithm, estimate...
150,000+ uncounted COVID-19 deaths occurred early in pandemic, study finds
NEW YORK The COVID-19 pandemic's early death toll was much higher than the official U.S. count, according to a new study that spotlights dramatic disparities in the uncounted deaths.About 840,000 COVID-19 deaths were reported on death certificates in 2020 and 2021. But a group of researchers using a form of artificial intelligence estimate that as many as 155,000 unrecognized additional deaths likely occurred in that time outside of hospitals. T…
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