Comparison of Estimated Excess Deaths in New York City During the COVID-19 and 1918 Influenza Pandemics

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Jeremy Samuel Faust, Harvard University; Zhenqiu Lin, Yale New Haven Medical Center; Carlos del Rio, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-08-13
• Publisher: American Medical Association
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2020 Faust JS et al.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.17527
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: JAMA Network Open
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 8
• Start Page: e2017527
• End Page: e2017527
• Grant/Funding Information: None declared
• Keywords: Science & Technology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; General & Internal Medicine; Medicine, General & Internal
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Public Health; Health Sciences, Health Care Management; Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery

Abstract

During the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic, there were approximately 50 million influenza-related deaths worldwide, including 675 000 in the US. Few persons in the US have a frame of reference for the historic levels of excess mortality currently being observed during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.1 In this study, excess deaths in New York City during the peak of the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic were compared with those during the initial period of the COVID-19 outbreak.