Extra COVID deaths within the US in 2021 than 2020

As 2021 involves an finish, the world is getting nearer to the two-year mark of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has contributed to the deaths of greater than 5 million individuals, in accordance with the World Well being Group.

A viewer informed VERIFY that, regardless of vaccines being out there, they heard there have been extra COVID-19 deaths within the U.S. in 2021 than in 2020. They wished to know if that was true.

Have there been extra COVID-19 deaths within the U.S. in 2021 than in 2020?

Sure, there have been extra COVID-19 deaths within the U.S. in 2021 than in 2020.

Public well being consultants say a number of elements have contributed to the 2021 COVID-19 dying toll, from not sufficient individuals being vaccinated to the emergence of the extra contagious delta variant to individuals taking fewer security precautions.

As of Dec. 10, there have been 791,130 COVID-19 deaths within the U.S. in the course of the entirety of the pandemic, in accordance with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC). Of these deaths, 385,361 have been in 2020 and 405,769 have been in 2021 up to now.

However vaccines have been out there to a lot of the American public in 2021, so why have there been extra deaths?

“Extra contagious variant, unvaccinated inhabitants, regular actions, all of which might be permitting a lot of individuals to get contaminated,” mentioned Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious illness doctor and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Heart for Well being Safety. “And a few of these are going to be deadly circumstances.”

Emily Pond, a researcher at Johns Hopkins Heart for Well being Safety, mentioned the U.S. inhabitants has been sluggish to get vaccinated, which has performed a job within the excessive variety of deaths.

“The U.S. wasn’t at 25% absolutely vaccinated till April 2021, so we weren’t seeing large-scale safety from vaccination packages till later within the yr,” she defined.

Whereas extra People have gotten vaccinated, 60% of the inhabitants as of Dec. 10, the U.S. nonetheless lags behind many industrial international locations. For instance, the proportion of individuals absolutely vaccinated is 77% in Canada, 77% in Japan and 75% in Australia, in accordance with knowledge assembled by Johns Hopkins College.

“There are nonetheless many high-risk people who haven’t been vaccinated,” Adalja mentioned.

Knowledge collected by the CDC from 24 totally different well being departments throughout the U.S., which signify greater than one-third of the U.S. inhabitants, present that unvaccinated persons are at a larger danger of dying from COVID-19 than people who find themselves absolutely vaccinated. In September 2021, the latest month the info was analyzed, the CDC mentioned unvaccinated individuals had a 14 instances higher danger of dying from COVID-19 than absolutely vaccinated individuals.

One other issue contributing to the greater than 400,000 COVID-19 deaths in 2021 has been the emergence of the delta variant, which the CDC says is greater than twice as contagious as earlier variants. Circumstances of the delta variant started rising in the summertime and now signify 99.9% of recent circumstances, in accordance with the CDC.

“In different areas, the place we’ve much less contagious variants, you’ll be able to someway keep away from the virus in a means which you could’t with delta,” Adalja mentioned.

Adalja and Pond additionally identified that by means of a mix of fewer restrictions and pandemic fatigue, many individuals in 2021 haven’t been taking the identical precautions they took in 2020.

“In 2020, regardless that there was no vaccine, many individuals have been nonetheless social distancing, carrying masks, being actually meticulous. Plenty of that has worn off,” Adalja mentioned.

Pond mentioned that’s led to extra publicity, and when mixed with the delta variant, has resulted in larger transmission, extra circumstances and extra deaths.

Extra from VERIFY: Reality Sheet: COVID-19 omicron variant