Long Covid responsible for thousands of U.S. deaths, but true numbers are likely much higher – “This is very clearly data from folks who got very sick, ended up at the hospital with sustained organ damage”
By Jen Christensen
14 December 2022
(CNN) – Long Covid leaves some people with long-term symptoms, but it can be deadly, too. It played a part in at least 3,544 deaths in the United States in the first 30 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new report says.
The report is the first official attempt by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics to quantify the number of long Covid deaths in the United States.
Some experts say this finding is probably a significant undercount, considering that up to 30% of people who get Covid-19 go on to have long-term symptoms, according to the CDC.
The research, published Wednesday, analyzed death certificates in the National Vital Statistics System from January 2020 through the end of June 2022.
The research was difficult because, unlike with diseases such as cancer or diabetes, the US did not have a specific disease code to track long Covid during that time period.
Not every doctor, medical examiner or coroner fills out a death certificate the same way, so the researchers had to create a program to scan more than a million death certificates for text. Because there is not one settled term to describe long Covid, they included several key terms in their search, including “chronic Covid,” “long Covid” and “post COVID syndrome.”
They found that long Covid deaths made up less than 0.3% of the 1,021,487 Covid-related deaths from January 2020 through June 2022. There were some common elements among those who died, as well.
Deaths mostly in seniors, Whites, males
The majority of people who died from long Covid were White, older, and male.
Specifically, 78.5% of the deaths were among non-Hispanic White people. Non-Hispanic Black people made up 10.1% of the deaths, followed by Hispanic people at 7.8%.
The death rate was highest among non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Natives, at 14.8 per 100,000 people.
Covid-19 deaths have disproportionately been among people of color, CDC research shows, and the new report notes that more people who identify as Black or Hispanic may have died of the initial disease before they could even develop long Covid. This may account for some of the racial differences in the new findings.
Studies have also found that with more barriers to health care for people of color, some people who died may not have been able to see a doctor to get an official Covid diagnosis, so it wouldn’t be recognized on a death certificate, the report said.
Adults 75 to 84 accounted for 28.8% of long Covid deaths, followed by people 85 and older at 28.1% and people between 65 and 74 years old at 21.5%, the report says. In general, it is much more common for older adults to die from Covid than younger populations, CDC data shows. […]
The many effects of long Covid
The study is a good start, but it takes a “fairly myopic view” of death from long Covid, said Dr. David Putrino, director of rehabilitation innovation for Mount Sinai Health System.
“This is very clearly data from folks who got very sick, ended up at the hospital with sustained organ damage,” said Putrino, who works closely with long Covid patients but was not involved in the new report.
He says the research misses a sizable number of people who may get long Covid and die as a result.
For instance, some people who are not hospitalized for an initial infection but get long Covid go on to develop heart problems, studies show. Long Covid would not necessarily be captured on those death certificates, Putrino said.
“We read every single day about people who have previously been healthy, get Covid, recover and then have a heart attack or stroke or pulmonary embolism,” Putrino said.
This research may also miss people with long Covid who died by suicide; the condition probably wouldn’t be listed on their death certificates.
“We currently know that suicidal thoughts, suicidal acts, suicidal ideation and completed suicides are occurring all around the country with folks who were previously healthy, had a less severe acute Covid infection but then went on to develop very severe post-acute sequelae,” Putrino said. [more]
More Than 3,500 Americans Have Died from Long COVID-Related Illness in the First 30 Months of the Pandemic
14 December 2022 (CDC) – Death certificate analysis shows that long COVID played a part in 3,544 deaths in the United States from January 2020 through the end of June 2022. Long COVID deaths represented less than 1% of the 1,021,487 deaths for which COVID-19 was the underlying or contributing cause of death in that period. These findings are included in a new report from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).
The report, “Identification of Deaths with Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 Identified from Death Certificate Literal Text: United States, January 1, 2020-June 30, 2022”, describes and quantifies COVID-19 deaths involving long COVID. Cause of death text entered on death certificates in the National Vital Statistics System were analyzed to identify these deaths.
People with prior history of severe COVID-19 illness are at increased risk of post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) and death. PASC, commonly called “long COVID”, refers to long-term symptoms experienced after a person has recovered from acute infection with SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Subject matter expert consultation, as well as CDC’s clinical guidance for PASC, informed the list of key terms used to categorize long COVID deaths. The terms chosen for inclusion in the analysis indicated long-term symptoms or effects of prior infection, such as exacerbation of existing conditions due to COVID-19 infection. Only terms that communicated that a post-COVID condition caused or contributed to the death were included.
Other findings documented in the report:
- The highest number of deaths with long COVID occurred in February 2022.
- The percentage of all COVID-19 deaths that involved long COVID peaked in June 2021 (1.2%) and in April 2022 (3.8%). Both peaks coincide with periods of declining numbers of COVID-19 deaths.
- Men accounted for a slightly larger percentage of long COVID deaths (51.5%) than women (48.5%).
- S. adults 75-84 years old accounted for the highest percentage of long COVID deaths (28.8%), followed by adults 85 years and older (28.1%) and adults 65-74 years old (21.5%).
- The majority of long COVID deaths occurred among non-Hispanic White people (78.5%).
- Non-Hispanic Black people accounted for the next highest percentage of long COVID deaths (10.1%), followed by Hispanic people (7.8%).
- The death rate for long COVID was highest among non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native people (14.8 per 100,000) and lowest among non-Hispanic Asian people (1.5 per 100,000).
The report is available on the NCHS web site at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr025.pdf.
More Than 3,500 Americans Have Died from Long COVID-Related Illness in the First 30 Months of the Pandemic
