Last November we wrote about how bad the Covid pandemic in the U.S. could become once winter arrived...and that was before we had vaccines. Well, we got vaccines in 2021, plenty of them (at least here in the U.S). Yet, the number of Covid deaths in 2021 has already surpassed that of 2020, with 5 more weeks to go. In 2020, there were 327,027 Covid-related deaths, according to Worldometer. As of Nov 24, 2021 there were already 428,215 Covid deaths or 58,188 more.
Looking at the chart below, we can see a surge in deaths in the colder months between Oct and Mar; roughly 45% of all U.S. Covid deaths happened in those six months. With the rapid uptake in vaccinations in the early months of 2021, deaths fells precipitously in Q2. But the onset of the more contagious Delta variant, lower adherence to social distancing and masking, and the plateauing of vaccination rates, all contributed to a significant increase in deaths in the Q3 and Q4. In total 798,242 Americans have died due to the virus since January 2020.
To put those numbers in context, according to the Peterson KFF Health System Tracker, "COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death across most of 2020, but in December 2020 and early 2021, the illness surged and briefly became the number one leading cause of death in the U.S., far surpassing even cancer and heart disease deaths in those months." Historically, heart disease and cancer have averaged around 600K-650K deaths a year, Covid is averaging over 400K (click chart to enlarge)...and winter is coming, once more!
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