The report shows an overall drop of 5.3 percent in the death rate from all causes, a signal that the country last year had exited the worst phase of the pandemic. Deaths from covid dropped 47 percent between 2021 and 2022.
But covid has not magically become like the flu or a new type of cold. Even though the population had built up high levels of immunity from vaccination and natural infection, covid was the fourth leading cause of death in 2022, behind heart disease , cancer and “unintentional injury,” which includes drug overdoses . The CDC estimated that covid was the underlying cause of 186,702 deaths and a contributing factor in another 58,284.Covid “has not gone away,” William Schaffner, an infectious-disease doctor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said in an email after reviewing the report.
By far the biggest killers remain heart disease and cancer. This was the third straight year the age-adjusted death rate from heart disease has risen, and the second straight year for cancer deaths. The death rate from all causes in the United States in 2022 was almost as high as the rate in 2020, and much higher than in 2019.may be an effect of the pandemic. For example, cancer screenings declined as many people chose to postpone medical visits.
The report shows an overall drop of 5.3 percent in the death rate from all causes, a signal that the country last year had exited the worst phase of the pandemic. Deaths from covid dropped 47 percent between 2021 and 2022.