Excess Deaths Are Rising in the United States Despite COVID-19 Pandemic Being Over
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Jul 24, 2025 1 day, 11 hours, 42 minutes ago
Thailand Medical News: A Growing Crisis Hidden in Plain Sight
A shocking new study has revealed that the United States continues to see a staggering number of unnecessary deaths, even years after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers say that more than 1.5 million deaths in 2022 and 2023 could have been avoided if Americans had the same mortality rates as people in other wealthy countries. These unnecessary deaths are being called “missing Americans” by scientists, a term that refers to those who would still be alive if the US simply matched the health outcomes of its international peers.
Excess Deaths Are Rising in the United States Despite COVID-19 Pandemic Being Over
This
Thailand Medical News report is based on findings from researchers at Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), the University of Minnesota, Hunter College at the City University of New York, and Cambridge Health Alliance. Their analysis, published in JAMA Health Forum, tracked over 100 million US deaths between 1980 and 2023, comparing them to 230 million deaths across 21 high-income nations like Canada, Japan, France, and the UK.
A Four Decade Decline in Health Outcomes
The study reveals that the problem isn’t new—it’s been getting worse for over 40 years. Since 1980, the US has accumulated approximately 14.7 million excess deaths. Alarmingly, while excess deaths peaked in 2021 during the height of the pandemic, the 705,331 excess deaths in 2023 were still dramatically higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019, when 631,247 people were considered missing Americans.
Even more troubling, nearly half of all deaths in people under the age of 65 could have been prevented if US age-specific death rates matched those of similar countries. That means millions of working-age Americans are dying early—not because of bad luck or genetics, but because of systemic failure.
Root Causes Go Beyond the Pandemic
While COVID-19 played a role in spiking mortality rates, the underlying crisis existed long before the virus emerged. The researchers say that the US health disadvantage is largely fueled by preventable deaths due to drug overdoses, gun violence, car accidents, and heart-related conditions. These issues reflect deep problems in healthcare access, policy neglect, and underinvestment in social support systems.
According to Dr. Jacob Bor, lead author and associate professor at BUSPH, “This longer-run tragedy continued to unfold in the shadows of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Co-author Dr. Elizabeth Wrigley-Field from the University of Minnesota emphasized, “The 700,000 excess deaths in 2023 is what you’d expect based on trends before the pandemic. The pandemic made things worse, but it’s not the root cause.”
A Call for Urgent Action
The researchers argue that the US can learn from other nations that prioritize universa
l healthcare, evidence-based policies, and social safety nets. Unfortunately, the growing distrust in government and political divisions make implementing these solutions more difficult.
As Dr. Andrew Stokes from BUSPH warns, “Our failure to act is a national scandal. These deaths are not inevitable. They reflect decades of policy failure and inaction.”
The study findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Health Forum.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2834281
For the latest on excess deaths, keep on logging to
Thailand Medical News.
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https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/excess-death-study-shockingly-finds-that-more-younger-americans-aged-between-25-to-44-are-dying-earlier
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/thailand-medical-study-warns-that-excess-death-rates-involving-children-are-rising-after-termination-of-covid-19-surveillance
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