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 Control and Prevention. COVID-19 was listed as the underlying cause on the death certificate in 86 percent of deaths, including 91 percent in 2020 and 66 percent in 2023, the agency says. For the remaining deaths, COVID-19 was considered a contributing cause.
Andrew Stokes, a professor at Boston University’s School of Public Health, and the paper’s co-authors said they wanted to figure out how many deaths from COVID-19 authorities had missed. They used machine learning intelligence to analyze death certificates….