Why are more than 300 people in the US still dying from COVID every week?
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220342473
Sympthsical and I had a roundy-round on this beginning with https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220342473#post3
It varies week by week and Covid deaths has recently dipped below flu deaths but is still close
It was at a rate higher than U.S. traffic deaths until a few months ago, which was when I last looked. Anyway, a quick Google
https://www.nhtsa.gov/press-releases/nhtsa-2023-traffic-fatalities-2024-estimates
40,901 fatalities reported in 2023 (that comes to 787/week)
COVID-19 drops to 10th leading cause of death in 2023
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-drops-to-10th-leading-cause-of-death-in-2023/
COVID-19 was blamed as the "underlying" primary cause for 49,928 deaths in 2023 (960/week)
That was 2023. More recently esitmates on traffic fatalities in 2024 are down a few percent. Using the 300/week figure for Covid, it appears more accurate to say Covid fatalities are a little less than half of traffic deaths currently.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/04/upshot/covid-illnesses-mild-winter.html
In late December, around 600 people were dying each week.
so somewhat less than 2023's 787/week traffic fatalities (76% as many)
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I'll correct my post to "more than a third" of U.S. traffic fatalities to get a little closer (300/787 = 38%)
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Edited to add
CDC: preliminary estimates of 2024-2025 season Covid deaths (10/1/24-5/17/25): 30,000-50,000.
https://www.cdc.gov/covid/php/surveillance/burden-estimates.html
Using the mid-range figure of 40,000 and ignoring deaths during the remaining 4 1/2 months of the year (mid-May through September), that comes to 40,000/52 = 769/week, about the same as traffic fatalities, so that's probably where I got the impression that they were about the same.
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