March through May saw a significant increase in deaths over previous years – and not just from COVID-19, says a new study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
March through May saw a significant increase in deaths over previous years – and not just from COVID-19, says a new study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
When deaths attributed to COVID-19 were removed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention totals, the death rate in several demographics outpaced the same period in 2019, the study found. The timeframe represents the first three months of response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
Sheldon H. Jacobson, a professor of computer science and of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, and Janet Jokela, the head of the department of internal medicine and acting regional dean of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana, published their findings in the journal Public Health.
“We know that the pandemic is selectively taking lives. It also seems to be causing ancillary deaths that are not directly caused by COVID-19, but are a consequence of the fact that we have COVID-19 in our society, in our health care system, in our jobs, in our lives. We’re trying to capture those effects as data,” Jacobson said.
Read more at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau
Image: U.S. deaths from non-COVID-19 causes were significantly higher in the first months of the pandemic than in previous years across several demographics, according to a new study by computer science professor Sheldon H. Jacobson and internal medicine professor Janet Jokela. (Credit: Photo by L. Brian Stauffer)
