IHME: Global COVID-19 Death Toll More Than Double Official Estimates
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- New analysis suggests the Coronavirus is far more deadly than originally believed.
The official count from Johns Hopkins University is more than 3.2 million deaths worldwide, but the IHME estimates the real number is nearly 6.9 million deaths.
Here in the United States, their analysis shows more than 905,000 deaths, much more than the reported count of 574,000.
Researchers compared anticipated deaths from all causes based on pre-pandemic trends with the actual number of all-cause deaths during the pandemic.
They then took this excess mortality figure and removed deaths that were indirectly attributable to the pandemic.
The research institution said most deaths go unreported because most countries only record deaths that occur in hospitals or of patients with a confirmed infection.
They also found the largest number of unreported deaths occurred in countries that have had the largest epidemics to date.
The Institute is also known to forecast the number of deaths we're going to see in the months ahead.
The Institute is forecasting out to September 1, and in the next four months, we could see another 43,000 deaths, but around 9,000 lives could be saved if masks are worn and social distancing guidelines are followed.