[BenLurkin]

What does “excess deaths” mean?

[livius]

It means deaths above the normal average overall total for the year or whatever period. That is, if in one year in your city, say 5,000 people generally die, of whatever cause, but this year, 6,000 people die, this thousand would be “excess deaths.’ So if there’s 1,000 excess deaths and a virus circulating, it could be assumed that the virus has caused the rise in the number of deaths.

[ThunderSleeps]

As I understand it, "excess deaths" are deaths over and above the expected deaths during the same time period. It is tough to pin down because the "expected" number is typically a statistical range. It is a far more accurate count than "anyone and everyone who died with covid-19 or who might have had it - ie. presumptive positive"... It is an acknowledgement that "gosh xyz was going to die anyway of condition pdq...the fact that he/she had covid-19 really isn't a contributing factor."

If this data holds up, boom! Pandemic is *over* it would mean covid-19 is far, far *less* dangerous than even the usual seasonal flu.

[trebb]

“This data visualization presents data on weekly counts of all-cause mortality by jurisdiction of occurrence. Counts of deaths in the most recent weeks are compared with historical trends to determine whether the number of deaths in recent weeks is significantly higher than expected.”

IOW - are there actually more deaths occurring than one would have expected w/o Covid...