COVID-19 is no longer a top cause of death for Americans, dropping from fourth place in 2022 to 10th place last year.
The disease was listed on 49,928 death certificates in 2023 — down from 186,552 in 2022 and a peak of 416,893 in 2021.
Just over 3 million fatalities were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics last year, with heart disease and cancer once again leading the way. The rate of fatal heart disease increased 0.4% from 2019 to 2023, with 680,909 deaths logged last year.
Dr. David Majure, medical director of the heart transplant program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said heart disease needs to be taken more seriously.
“Cardiovascular disease is a slow killer that over time leads to premature death,” Majure told The Post. “Meaningfully impacting the toll of cardiovascular disease requires more than solutions in the clinic or hospital.”
He said the focus should be on improving diets, exercising and preventing diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
After heart disease and cancer, the third most common cause of death is “unintentional injuries.” The rate for this collection of preventable deaths spiked 26.3% from 2019 to 2023, fueled by a significant increase in fatal drug overdoses. --->READ MORE HERE
COVID-19 was the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, down from fourth place in 2022.
Heart disease, cancer and unintentional injuries — a category of deaths that has surged in recent years mainly due to drug overdoses — remain the three leading causes of death. Stroke, which had ranked fifth before the pandemic, climbed to fourth.
"In 2020, COVID-19 altered the rankings of leading causes of death substantially. The mortality burden of COVID-19 has decreased since then," researchers from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics said, in an article published Thursday by the journal JAMA.
For 2020, the first year of the pandemic, COVID-19 was the No. 3 cause of death in the U.S., exceeded only by heart disease and cancer.
COVID deaths have declined since then, largely due to a majority of the surviving population being vaccinated or with immunity from previous infections.
CDC officials had previously said they suspected COVID-19's steep fall in mortality might even put it below the top 10 for last year, behind suicide deaths, which take longer to report and had ranked as the 10th leading cause before the pandemic.
Suicide remained in 11th place for 2023, the CDC's provisional figures now suggest. In 2023, 49,303 suicide deaths were reported, down slightly from 2022. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
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YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
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