In 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 became the third leading cause of death in the US. This May, the country passed the grim milestone of 1 million known COVID deaths. Although fewer people are dying from the virus now than during the height of the Omicron surge this winter or previous waves, new strains have continued to take lives.
As the pandemic drags on, understanding how many people are dying and who is most vulnerable remains crucial for efforts to avert further deaths. To that end, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently updated the software it uses to process all of the country’s mortality data. The change, powered by advanced computing techniques like machine learning, could supply health officials and the public with more up-to-date information about the disease.
“Civil registration of births and deaths and understanding causes of death are really key to a functioning health system,” says Emily Smith, an assistant professor of global health at George Washington University. “There are a lot of ways to use this information.”
Tracking the leading causes of death in a community and identifying where those deaths are concentrated helps public health officials direct resources, she adds. During a crisis like the COVID pandemic, having prompt information is particularly crucial. But the national statistics system has been slow to process and post mortality figures. When the US passed a million deaths from the virus earlier this year, the CDC’s tracker was still weeks behind.
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