There've been a few posts recently about how total deaths in the US this year are down compared to previous years. I was curious, so I ran the numbers myself based on the same CDC data that other posters and their sources supposedly used.
I pulled the last 4 years of weekly raw data from the CDC here: https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/fluview/mortality.html
Then I tallied and compared the totals for the first 47 weeks of each year (these numbers are TOTAL DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES in the US):
2017 2515944
2018 2551868
2019 2559485
2020 2886361
Based on this data, total deaths are up by over 300,000 this year vs each of the last 3 years, which were each within 50,000 of one another.
Whenever I mention these stats on conspiracies.win I get downvoted, but nobody ever has a response, so I think I'm on to something!
What do you think could've caused this?
Hmm, interesting. I hadn't heard this particular number before, but makes sense that unemployment would lead to more deaths.
Looks like Wade Thomas, the author of that original study (from 1981), isn't confident that it would hold up today, as stated earlier this year:
https://nypost.com/2020/04/20/explaining-the-link-between-unemployment-deaths-amid-coronavirus/
But definitely worth considering. The original study attributed over half of the increased deaths to heart attacks, so if it holds we may be able to find some evidence in heart attack death rates for 2020.
Yeah that's my understanding, and I agree. 300k+ seems like a lot to attribute to increased stress alone, but it certainly must be a factor.