More Than 150,000 Uncounted COVID-19 Deaths Occurred Early In Pandemic, Study Finds
Source: Huff Post/AP
Mar 18, 2026, 09:05 PM EDT
NEW YORK (AP) The COVID-19 pandemics 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. That would mean about 16% of COVID-19 deaths went uncounted in those years.
The overall findings, published Wednesday by the journal Science Advances, were close to estimates from other studies of pandemic deaths during that time. But the authors of the new study tried to determine exactly which deaths were more likely to be missing from the official tallies.
The answer: The undiagnosed dead were more likely to be Hispanic people and other people of color, who had died in the first few months of the pandemic, and who had been in certain states in the South and Southwest including Alabama, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Six years after the coronavirus swept through the U.S., barriers remain for many of the same people, said Steven Woolf, a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher not involved in the study. People on the margins continue to die at disproportionate rates because they cant access care, he said in an email.
Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/us-uncounted-covid-deaths_n_69bb478ee4b0411b809f7191?origin=home-latest-news-unit
Link to STUDY - Applying machine learning to identify unrecognized COVID-19 deaths recorded as other causes of death in the United States
Blues Heron
(8,752 posts)Hugin
(37,827 posts)Possibly by as much as a third. Especially notable in sparsely populated areas. Theres simply not as many people around.
OldBaldy1701E
(11,042 posts)And, they died because the orange gibbon was in denial, as was a significant search of the population?
Say it ain't so!
(The only thing that surprises me is that anyone is still surprised about anything that this administration did or does.)
ChicagoTeamster
(881 posts)Covid may have started earlier in the US. There were people participating in flu studies that were being conducted on the west coast in the fall of 2019 and even though the tests available at the time were not specific to Covid, the flu studies were detecting people who reported the flu like symptoms, submitted samples, tested negative for flu. Then they did more tests and were told they had a coronavirus.
In late 2020 NorthWestern University paid people to come in and take antibody tests and a lot of people who never reported having been ill had Covid antibodies.
The US population was developing antibodies from small viral load exposures in addition to those who got full blown Covid.
mn9driver
(4,848 posts)In which the Pathological Liar in Chief explains how reality is a Biden hoax and Covid never existed at all.
CanonRay
(16,141 posts)He was extremely ill with what we thought was severe flu. He started to improve and had a sudden heart attack. No previous heart problems.
eppur_se_muova
(41,812 posts)Johnny2X2X
(24,140 posts)We knew it was happening, but still so infuriating to see confirmed. 1 in every 280 Americans died from Covid. Think about that. The largest Football stadiums when full hold about 110,000 people, imagine going to a football game and knowing 400 people in the stadium were going to die.
2naSalit
(102,323 posts)My mom but that's not what it says on her death certificate so I guess she's one of the many unaccounted for victims.
love_katz
(3,255 posts)However, my sister says that isn't listed as the cause of death on her death certificate.
I believe that is a cover up on the part of the nursing home. My sister caught the manager and a maintenance employee who were in the building but not wearing masks when my sister arrived to drop off some supplies for our mom. This was during the strict lock down and social distancing period. My sister was not even allowed inside. She had to buzz the office and stand on the porch to drop off the supplies. When she questioned the manager about why she and the maintenance worker weren't wearing masks, the woman blew her off with an excuse that they weren't directly involved with care giving so they "didn't need " to wear masks.
When our mom was dying from CoVid, we received a call from a caregiver, letting us know what was happening. I talked to my mother over the phone. I will never forget how she sounded. I could clearly hear what CoVid was doing to her. I will never understand how people could be in denial of the awful reality of this horrible disease, and I will NEVER forgive the criminal mishandling of the pandemic and the politicizing of wearing masks and taking all necessary measures to prevent the spread of the disease!
I bet that many deaths that were caused by CoVid were not listed as such on the death certificates.
maxsolomon
(38,622 posts)We're a nation with Covid PTSD. Most everyone lost a family member or friend.
I find I cannot put dates to things that happened prior to 2020. When did my cat die? IDK, before Covid. When did we last go to the coast? IDK, before Covid.