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Wednesday, October 4, 2023 | 
U.S. & World

There may have been more COVID-19 deaths than we thought, new study suggests

A new study suggests that close to 75,000 more people might have died from the pandemic than what was originally recorded.

By Herb Scribner Herb Scribnerhscribner@deseretnews.com
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In this Aug. 14, 2020, file photo, laboratory technicians work at the mAbxience biopharmaceutical company on an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and the laboratory AstraZeneca in Garin, Argentina. AstraZeneca announced Monday, Aug. 31, its vaccine candidate has entered the final testing stage in the U.S.

In this Aug. 14, 2020, file photo, laboratory technicians work at the mAbxience biopharmaceutical company on an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and the laboratory AstraZeneca in Garin, Argentina.

Natacha Pisarenko, Associated Press

A new study from researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University found there may have been 75,000 more deaths from the pandemic than what was originally recorded, according to a new study from JAMA.

The peer-reviewed study found there were more than 150,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 from March to July. However, there may have been 75,000 more deaths during that time that “were indirectly caused by the pandemic — bringing the total number of deaths for those four months to more than 225,000,” according to USA Today.

  • “There have been some conspiracy theories that the number of deaths from COVID-19 have been exaggerated,” Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, told USA Today. “The opposite is the case. We’re actually experiencing more death than we thought we were.”
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The deaths may have been caused by illnesses like diabetes and heart disease, which increased in the same states that had the most COVID-19 deaths, Woolf told USA Today.

  • Patients received less care, and people worried about getting care at all, according to the study.
  • Some people suffered from emotional stress during the time period that may have led to deaths, too.
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The study suggested state policies regarding reopening may have led to more cases, too.

  • “The high death counts in Sun Belt states show us the grave consequences of how some states responded to the pandemic and sound the alarm not to repeat this mistake going forward,” Woolf said.