Experts Say Death Toll From Coronavirus In The US Is Higher Than Official Count

reports “the fast-spreading novel coronavirus is almost certainly killing Americans who are not included in the nation’s growing death toll, according to public health experts and government officials involved in the tally.” CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said that the official count only includes people who have tested positive for coronavirus, remarking, “We know that it is an underestimation.” According to epidemiologists, there was “a widespread lack of access to testing in the early weeks of the U.S. outbreak,” so “people with respiratory illnesses died without being counted.” The New York Times (4/5, Kliff, Bosman) offers several specific examples of deaths that may have been caused by coronavirus, but they have not been added to the official count for different reasons, including denied requests for tests. According to the New York Times, across the US, “even as coronavirus deaths are being recorded in terrifying numbers – many hundreds each day – the true death toll is likely much higher.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/coronavirus-death-toll-americans-are-almost-certainly-dying-of-covid-19-but-being-left-out-of-the-official-count/2020/04/05/71d67982-747e-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html