Oregon reports 133 COVID deaths in December, January

There have been more than 2,000 deaths a week from COVID in the United States for the last five weeks running, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, Scientific American reported this week that “Worldwide, there were more than 11,000 reported deaths from COVID between mid-December 2023 and mid-January 2024.”

The magazine also reported that more than half of those deaths occurred in the U.S. In that same time frame, nearly one million cases were reported to the World Health Organization globally (although reduced testing and reporting means this is likely a vast undercount).

Oregon Health Authority reported 96 “COVID-related” deaths statewide in December and 37 in January. It reported 81 deaths in November.

The CDC reported that 30 residents of Yamhill County were hospitalized for COVID the week of Jan. 27, a 57.9% increase over the previous week.

On Feb. 6, the most recent data available, the OHA reported 189 Oregonians hospitalized with COVID, 28 of them in Region 2, which includes Yamhill, Marion, Polk, Benton, Linn and Lincoln counties.

Although both the United States and the World Health Organization ended their emergency declarations last year, the WHO has repeatedly noted that the pandemic has not ended.

Influenza and RSV rates have also been high this winter.

The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota this week reported that “a new study from researchers at Boston University School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania shows that a substantial proportion of excess mortality numbers counted as deaths from natural causes during the COVID-19 pandemic were actually attributable to the novel coronavirus.”

It noted that “According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,174,626 Americans have died due to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic nearly four years ago. But excess mortality— deaths that would not be expected compared to other years — has also risen, suggesting COVID-19 has a role in those deaths, as well.”

The study showed that excess deaths coincided with increases in local COVID-19 rates, according to Centers for Disease Control.

A press release from the Boston University School of Public Health said the study “provides the most compelling data yet to suggest that excess mortality rates from chronic illnesses and other natural causes were actually driven by COVID-19 infections, disproving high-profile claims that have attributed these deaths to other factors such as COVID vaccinations and shelter-in-place policies.”

Study corresponding author Dr. Andrew Stokes, associate professor of global health at BUSPH said in the press release that “We observed peaks in non-COVID-19 excess deaths in the same or prior month as COVID-19 deaths, a pattern consistent with these being unrecognized COVID-19 deaths that were missed due to low community awareness and a lack of COVID-19 testing.”

Lead author Eugenio Paglino, a PhD student studying demography and sociology at University of Pennsylvania said in the press release that if the primary explanation for these deaths were healthcare interruptions and delays in care, the non-COVID excess deaths would likely occur after a peak in reported COVID-19 deaths and subsequent interruptions in care.

“However, this pattern was not observed nationally or in any of the geographic subregions we assessed,” Paglino said.

The press release noted that “researchers found that the gap between these non-COVID excess deaths and reported COVID-19 deaths was largest in nonmetropolitan counties, the West, and the South—and that the second year of the pandemic saw almost as many non-COVID excess deaths in the second year of the pandemic as in the first year, contrary to previous research.”