COVID-19 has been rampaging through the US. It has now caused more deaths in the US than the Vietnam War, the Korean War, World War I, and the flu pandemics of 1957-58, 1968, and 2008-09. It has now beaten several top causes of mortality in the US including stroke, diabetes, flu and pneumonia and appears to be the third leading cause of death in the US in 2020 so far, based on latest statistics and estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Inspired by Dr. Maria Danilychev who compared the COVID-19 daily deaths vs average daily deaths due to top 15 causes of death in the US for the period of March 1 – April 15, I decided to provide visualization of the latest data on total deaths from COVID-19 and the Top 10 causes of mortality in the US. For this purpose, I dug into the CDC data for COVID-19 deaths as well as the latest data available for leading causes of mortality in the US and created this visualization for the period from the week ending on February 22nd (the week during which the first COVID-19 deaths in Washington State were reported) through the week ending on Jun 20th (the latest week for which complete weekly data for COVID-19 deaths was available).
The extremely high death toll of COVID-19 shows why it is imperative that we continue to practice physical distancing and adopt measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus such as wearing masks and washing hands frequently.
Have questions or comments? Drop me a line at mail@aar.am.
Hi there! I’m Aaram, the founder of Sciencera. I grew up in the beautiful city of Thiruvananthapuram in the Southern part of India, famous for its pristine beaches. Now, I am a scientific writer based in Indianapolis. When I am not busy procrastinating on my writing, poring through research articles, or coming up with grand ideas to save the planet, I love playing soccer and chess. I read a bit and write sporadically when caffeinated to the right amount. I am passionate about scientific research, writing, and outreach activities.
