Make that: 300,000 deaths from Covid (in US); and the worst is yet to come

✅300,000 more people across the country had died than would be expected in a typical year 

—Washington Post 

     The pandemic has led to at least 80,000 more U.S. deaths than the official toll records, according to a report on excess mortality released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

     The country's tally of confirmed coronavirus deaths stood at about 220,000 as of this afternoon. But the CDC analysis found that, by early October, nearly 300,000 more people across the country had died than would be expected in a typical year. The hidden fatalities are believed to be people who died of covid-19 without being diagnosed, or who died of other causes because they were unwilling or unable to seek medical care during the outbreak. 

      The pandemic's shadow death toll also includes a surprisingly large number of victims in their 20s, 30s and 40s. “The number of people dying from this pandemic is higher than we think,” said Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, who has conducted similar studies on excess fatalities. He told The Washington Post that the United States will likely suffer at least 400,000 excess deaths by the year's end.

✅Covid-19 Live Updates: A Third Coronavirus Surge Has Taken Root in the U.S.  

—NYT 

     After weeks of spread and warnings in certain areas, a third surge of coronavirus infections has now firmly taken hold across much of the United States. 

     The latest wave — which is raging most acutely in the Midwest and West, but is also spreading in various areas around the country — threatens to be the worst of the pandemic yet.

✅Today's OC Covid numbers: 302 new cases; 2 new deaths

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