Three years after the first COVID cases were detected in the Bay Area, a vexing question persists that can no longer be explained by the terrifying arrival of a deadly novel coronavirus: Why are so many people still dying?
Since 2020, California has recorded 130,000 more deaths than in the three previous years, a nearly 20% increase in mortality, the largest sustained spike in more than a century, and the reversal of a decades-long trend of decreasing death rates. In essence, experts say, that’s 130,000 more burials, cremations, viewings and funerals than there should have been.
Those lost lives, referred to as “excess deaths” in the public health world, are the number of deaths over what could be expected based on historical data and demographic trends. COVID-19 — which was first confirmed in California in late January 2020 — is the obvious culprit for the bulk of them. But officially the virus is blamed for just under 100,000 of those deaths. So why did the other 30,000 Californians die?
