About The Death Counts

We keep hearing about "excess deaths", and while that's a gruesome and ghoulish subject, it is something we have to be aware of, because it can give us a better understanding of the monster itself, and just as important, a look at how a particular disaster can color our politics (deliberately or otherwise).

NYT:

(again - sorry about the pay wall - here's the money quote)

Nationwide, 223,900 more people have died than usual from March 15 to Aug. 8, according to C.D.C. estimates, which adjust current death records to account for typical reporting lags. That number is 62,000 higher than the official count of coronavirus deaths for that period. Higher-than-normal death rates are now widespread across the country; only Alaska and Hawaii, states outside the contiguous United States, show numbers that look similar to recent years.

Our analysis examines deaths from all causes — not just confirmed cases of coronavirus — beginning in mid-March when the virus took hold. That allows comparisons that don’t depend on the availability of coronavirus tests in a given place or on the accuracy of cause-of-death reporting. What it shows is that some places have seen staggering death tolls, while nearly every state has seen death counts that are substantially higher than usual.

So if we add 62,000 to the total as of yesterday (8-25), we're already closing in on 250,000 dead Americans.