Infographic: Daily deaths in the United States, by cause – covid-19, seasonal flu, heart disease, cancer, accidents and more

Because there has been so much disinformation pushed out about covid-19 by some pro-Trump indy media pundits who fail to accurately interpret numbers (like David Knight from InfoWars as well as Dr. David Brownstein), we’ve put together a very clear chart of daily deaths in the United States from all the top causes.

The chart, shown below, may be shared everywhere and clearly shows that covid-19 is the No. 1 cause of death in America right now, on a day-to-day basis.

Citing published CDC data on daily deaths (sources below), the chart shows a snapshot from April 14th, 2020, revealing how covid-19 deaths far surpass daily deaths from cancer, heart disease, accidents, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and other causes.

The 2,407 daily deaths from covid-19, as of April 14th, towers far above the average daily deaths from seasonal flu: just 94.

Importantly, many pro-Trump pundits have broadcast disinformation for many weeks, falsely claiming the seasonal flu is killing over 9,700 American per day (they claim a 10% case fatality rate for the flu, which would be over 3.5 million deaths per year). In reality, the seasonal flu kills less than 1 in 1,000 people it infects, as the CDC clearly reveals in this influenza burden table:

Estimated Influenza Disease Burden, by Season — United States (for the 2018-19 influenza season)

Symptomatic Illnesses: 35,520,883
Medical Visits: 16,520,350
Hospitalizations: 490,561
Deaths: 34,157

Do the math. 34,157 deaths / 35,520,883 symptomatic illnesses is: 0.096% case fatality rate, which is less than 1 in 1,000.

When it comes to navigating this pandemic, it’s important to get the math right.

Here’s the full chart, showing all the top causes of death in the USA as of April 14th, via the CDC. Feel free to share and post the meme:

Sources:

www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm
www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html
www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Get more scientifically-accurate news and information about the coronavirus at Pandemic.news.

My latest podcast answers all the top questions about covid-19, including flu fatalities, lockdowns, death rates and more: