The U.S. recently surpassed its 2020 total for COVID-19 deaths in 2021 (presumably including those who died with but not from the 'Rona), according to data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
At least 385,348 deaths have been recorded in 2021 as of Saturday, compared to 385,343 in all of 2020.
At least 770,691 COVID-19 deaths have been recorded in the U.S. since JHU started tracking such numbers.
The website also shows that 196,284,442 people in the U.S. (59.80 percent of the U.S. population) are now "fully vaccinated," at least until the definition of that term inevitably changes. Nearly 100% of Americans 65 and older are at least partially vaccinated.
The Wall Street Journal reported in June that the global total in 2021 for COVID-19 deaths surpassed the global total in 2020 (1.88 million).
Just a reminder that the "COVID-19 deaths" talk is subject to whatever the health officials count as a COVID-19 death. 🧐
In other words, to flatly trust COVID numbers from any and all countries at face value, including the U.S., is more of a "trust fall" exercise than many might realize.
In case you're still tempted to be worried, also remember that JHU itself reported that death numbers remained relatively the same from 2019 to 2020 – it's just that the elderly and the vulnerable died at a much higher rate from Covid than from other various diseases.
Surprisingly, the deaths of older people stayed the same before and after COVID-19. Since COVID-19 mainly affects the elderly, experts expected an increase in the percentage of deaths in older age groups. However, this increase is not seen from the CDC data. In fact, the percentages of deaths among all age groups remain relatively the same.
