For musical fans: 2020: The Musical YouTube Link (~8 minutes) with Jimmy Fallon and Andrew Rannells

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SH Woolf et al.. JAMA 2020; 324: 510-513. Excess Deaths From COVID-19 and Other Causes, March-July 2020

The authors compared deaths from 2014-2020 using data from the National Center for Health Statistics and US Census Bureau.

Key findings:

• Between March 1 and August 1, 2020, 1 336 561 deaths occurred in the US, a 20% increase over expected deaths (1 111 031 [95% CI, 1 110 364 to 1 111 697]). 
• Of the 225 530 excess deaths, 150 541 (67%) were attributed to COVID-19
• The authors conclude that the excess deaths attributed to causes other than COVID-19 could reflect deaths from unrecognized or undocumented infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or deaths among uninfected patients resulting from disruptions produced by the pandemic

My take: The COVID-19 situation has worsened considerably in the past 2 months and the final toll from this infection will be truly staggering; this unfortunately will include its indirect effects due to deferral of care