Two recently published studies, one in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and another by the Imperial College London, take note of what they call “indirect deaths” resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. A study published Oct. 14 by Majid Ezzati, a professor at Imperial College London, looks at so-called “excess deaths,” which is the difference between the normal number of deaths that would have been expected over a given period, say the last three months, compared to the actual number of deaths that occurred. But only 80% of those excess deaths can be attributed directly to COVID-19, according to this study, which means that there are 20% additional deaths that can be statistically ascribed to the “indirect effects” of the pandemic. Looking at the period from mid-February through May 2020, this study reported 206,000 more deaths than would have been expected without the pandemic. But only 167,148 were officially traced to the coronavirus.
A similar study published on Oct. 12 by the Journal of the American Medical Association, also based on an analysis of death records, found that for every two deaths in the United States directly attributed to COVID-19 from March through July, a third American also died as a result of the pandemic.
