Tornado Alley (PROG)

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UPDATED: stockmule, Research says facts don't as a rule help much to change peoples' minds, still we here tend to feel they are valuable. Out
of interest (Ooi), how do you feel about receiving factual material which stand in conflict to counterfactual statements you make?

I know some people appreciate getting more accurate information. How do you feel about it? That asked, here's some

Fact check: The US saw more deaths in 2020 than in 2019, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic

Adrienne Dunn USA TODAY Jan 8 2021

[...]

While the final mortality reports for 2020 are not yet available, preliminary numbers show that 2020 is on track to become the deadliest year in U.S. history .. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/12/22/2020-deadliest-year-united-states-coronavirus/4006270001/ , with deaths exceeding 3 million, undoubtedly influenced by the coronavirus pandemic.

Deaths caused by the virus itself are not the sole cause of the year's increase .. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/12/22/2020-deadliest-year-united-states-coronavirus/4006270001/ , as the country has also seen more suicides and drug overdoses, in part because of the pandemic.

According to the CDC, there were more than 81,000 overdose deaths .. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p1218-overdose-deaths-covid-19.html .. in the 12 months ending in May of 2020, marking the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a yearlong period. Overdose data for 2020's full calendar year is not yet available.

Our ruling: False

The claim in the post is rated FALSE, based on our research. Deaths in the United States in 2020 already have surpassed 2019.

While the post has the correct number of deaths for 2019, it incorrectly concludes that only 2,835,533 U.S. deaths occurred in 2020. The total number of deaths in 2020 will not be known for months, but preliminary data shows the year has already surpassed 3.2 million, marking one of the deadliest years in U.S. history, largely influenced by the coronavirus pandemic.

Our fact-check sources:

* US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, March 5, First cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the WHO European Region, 24 January to 21 February 2020
* USA TODAY, Dec. 24, "Fact check: 2020 has been more deadly in the US compared with recent years"

* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dec. 2020, Mortality in the United States, 2019

* Politifact, Dec. 11, "The number of people who have died in the U.S. in 2020 is on par with years prior to COVID-19"

* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Excess Deaths Associated with COVID-19

* USA TODAY, Dec. 22, "More than 3 million people died in 2020 – the deadliest year in US history"

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/01/08/fact-check-u-s-more-deaths-2020-than-2019-covid-19/4141839001/

UPDATE: One other...

279,700 extra deaths in the US so far in this pandemic year

October 15, 2020 5.39am AEDT

[...]

Clearly visible in a graph .. https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/LWq2f/6/ .. of this data is the spike in deaths beginning in mid-March 2020 and continuing to the present. You can also see another period of excess deaths from December 2017 to January 2018, attributable to an unusually virulent flu strain that season.

The magnitude of the excess deaths in 2020 makes clear that COVID-19 is much worse than influenza, even when compared to a bad flu year like 2017-18, when an estimated 61,000 people in the U.S. died of the illness.
https://theconversation.com/279-700-extra-deaths-in-the-us-so-far-in-this-pandemic-year-147887