Official virus death toll in US nears one million

The US is closing in on the grim milestone of one million official COVID deaths, which it will likely hit within the next few days. But there’s much debate among researchers and public health experts over how many people the virus has truly killed. 

Boston University professor Andrew C. Stokes estimated that the death toll could be as high as 1.22 million because of “pervasive underreporting” and deaths caused by “indirect mechanisms.” 

The World Health Organization also said roughly 14.9 million more people worldwide died in 2020 and 2021 than would have been expected in normal times. Most were victims of COVID-19. That’s about 1 in 500 people globally. 

In the US, four in 10 people say they know one or more people who have died of the disease, according to a survey released last week.

The survey paints a “grim picture,” said Dr. Roy H. Perlis, a professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Someone has to say, ‘Hang on, there’s still a lot of work to do.’ ”