[mikelothar]

For an organization who one would think care deeply about science, I'd say statements like this is problematic.

"With the nation’s death toll now exceeding 215,000, the coronavirus has killed more people in the United States than anywhere else."

It's problematic because it's not very clear how this number has been calculated. CDC themselves say this about their own number:

"For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death."

Also, from the same page:

"When COVID-19 is reported as a cause of death – or when it is listed as a “probable” or “presumed” cause — the death is coded as U07.1. This can include cases with or without laboratory confirmation."

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm

So, 94% had other additional conditions (including heart disease, diabetes, and sepsis). And even then, not all cases had been confirmed/

It seems to me like 215,000 (probably/presumably) died _with_ COVID-19, but not necessarily from it.

In some countries in Europe, including the UK and some Scandinavian countries (I haven't been able to find the method for US), the number of deaths are counted in the following way:

"Deaths = the statistics on fatalities include deaths recorded within 30 days of the detection of COVID-19 infection in the individual. However, COVID-19 is not necessarily the cause of death."

https://www.sst.dk/en/English/Corona-eng/Status-of-the-epide...

I believe this number was previously 90 days, but in my opinion, it's not a very scientific way to calculate the severity of COVID-19.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying nobody dies from COVID-19. Even numbers from Europe shows this clearly: https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps

But when Nature is using the number 215,000 in the way they did, it does not look very credible. Take a look at the whole statement:

"With the nation’s death toll now exceeding 215,000, the coronavirus has killed more people in the United States than anywhere else. Even adjusting for population size, the country has fared spectacularly badly. Despite having vast scientific and monetary resources at his disposal, Trump failed catastrophically when it mattered most."

To me that looks more like it's driven by Orange Man Bad, than by science.

[jensgk]

Covid-19: At least two thirds of 225 000 excess deaths in US were due to virus (from march to july)

https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m3948

> it has many errorneous statements

You used the word "many", do you have any more examples?

[mikelothar]

This article seems to better explain the BMJ reference, at least it has more details: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/1-in-3-excess-deat...

"Healthcare disruption and emotional crises may have led to around a third of the 225,530 “excess deaths” in the United States between March 1 and August 1, 2020, a new study suggests."

Is it likely that 215,000 died from coronavirus, like Nature said? I'd like to see the math behind that.

[jensgk]

I think you answered your own question ;-)

[mikelothar]

Maybe you'll find it interesting, I don't know, but it looks like some numbers show that the average age of people who died with COVID-19, in England and Wales (I've heard similar numbers for Scotland and Denmark), are higher than the average life expectancy in those countries: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8821113/The-avera...

Does this suggest that getting COVID-19 increase your risk of getting older than average? Well, both yes and no, I guess. The numbers says so, but logic does not. My point is, a topic like COVID-19 death toll has become so hot that it's almost impossible to find credible information on what's up and down. We need to have more talks, more science, more data, more reason, openly, about what is going on. And we need them from reliable sources. Nature is cutting themselves out of this loop when they post something so one-sided as this article.