April 25, 2022
COVID deaths in 2021 trailed only heart disease, responsible for 693,000 deaths, and cancer, which took roughly 605,000 lives.
Overall, 65.2% of the COVID deaths in 2021 were among white individuals, 16.5% were among hispanic individuals, and 13.3% were among black individuals. In 2020 these proportions were 59.6%, 18.6%, and 16.1%, respectively. In other words, white and black Americans did worse in 2021, but not hispanics.
From 2020 to 2021, total deaths jumped from 3,383,729 to 3,458,697, an increase of nearly 75,000 or a 2.2% increase. Not exactly a great advertisement for the quality of health care in the US. Note that that increase is almost the same as the increase in COVID deaths. And this small increase is in sharp disagreement with reports from insurance companies of major death increases in 2021.
Behind the top three causes of death were unintentional injuries, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and suicide. Unintentional injuries was a category largely driven by drug overdose deaths, which led to a disproportionate increase in the deaths among younger people. Clearly, there have been few effective actions to address illegal drug use, especially fentanyl coming into the country through the open Southern border.