Coronavirus Watch: How New England caught COVID deaths most of the country missed
In every wave of the pandemic, a number of Americans who died of the virus didn’t have COVID-19 included on their death certificate. Instead, their deaths were attributed to other causes, and for this reason, the true number of deaths could be up to 150,000 more than the official toll, experts suggest.
But in New England, excess deaths during the pandemic are almost completely accounted for by official COVID deaths, according to a Paste BN Network investigation.
Read more about how New England more accurately evaluated and counted COVID deaths here.
It's Tuesday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's more news to know:
- Public concern about COVID-19 is diminishing compared to recent months, a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows.
- Washington, D.C.'s indoor mask mandate for most settings ended at midnight, just in time for President Biden's State of the Union address Tuesday evening.
- The lower-dose version of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for young children appears to be much less effective at preventing infection than the higher-dose vaccine for older children and adults, according to a new study.
See our COVID-19 resource guide here. See total reported cases and deaths here. On vaccinations: About 76% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and about 65% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
– Cady Stanton, Paste BN digital editor fellow, @cady_stanton