In some counties, half of the spike in deaths during the pandemic is attributed to COVID-19. Researchers say that points to an undercount
Summary
- In those communities, official COVID-19 deaths account for just half of the increase in deaths in 2020.
- Those deaths, especially those that weren’t properly investigated,make up at least some of Lafayette’s missing COVID deaths, according to experts.
- Talamo, Lafayette Parish’s chief medicolegal investigator, said he doesn’t think COVID-19 deaths are going uncounted, instead blaming suicides or drug overdoses.
- ‘COVID-19 can mimic an awful lot of diseases’Mississippi has the country’s highest COVID-19 death rate, with 1 in 285 people dead from the disease.
- “Underreporting of COVID deaths actually makes us think that we’re not in control of any of it,” Schacham said.