CDC: 44% of Covid-Associated Deaths Were of People Who Also Had PNEUMONIA

Pneumonia is one nasty disease

Of the 37,308 “deaths with confirmed or presumed COVID-19” in the CDC database 16,564, or 44%, also had pneumonia:

The jury is still out on just how bad the covid-19 disease really is. Antibodies studies indicate as high as 98-99% could be asymptomatic, and 97–99% of deaths in some countries had at least one other illness. However, there is no doubt whatsoever that pneumonia is a nasty disease indeed and quite deadly.

Table 1. Deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), pneumonia, and influenza reported to NCHS by week ending date, United States. Week ending 2/1/2020 to 4/25/2020.*

Data as of May 1, 2020

Week ending date in which the death occurred	COVID-19 Deaths (U07.1)¹	Deaths from All Causes	Percent of Expected Deaths²	Pneumonia Deaths (J12.0–J18.9)³	Deaths with Pneumonia and COVID-19 (J12.0–J18.9 and U07.1)³	Influenza Deaths (J09–J11)⁴	Deaths with Pneumonia, Influenza, or COVID-19 U07.1 or J09–J18.9)⁵
Total Deaths	37,308	719,438	97	64,382	16,564	5,846	90,165
2/1/2020	0	57,266	97	3,688	0	469	4,157
2/8/2020	1	57,615	97	3,672	0	494	4,167
2/15/2020	0	56,878	97	3,693	0	517	4,210
2/22/2020	0	56,806	98	3,557	0	536	4,093
2/29/2020	5	56,843	99	3,626	3	619	4,247
3/7/2020	25	56,212	97	3,719	14	583	4,312
3/14/2020	49	53,968	95	3,676	25	578	4,277
3/21/2020	493	53,979	95	4,150	226	496	4,907
3/28/2020	2,712	57,430	103	5,624	1,235	410	7,463
4/4/2020	8,082	64,313	115	8,724	3,875	432	13,148
4/11/2020	12,262	66,577	120	9,841	5,468	430	16,744
4/18/2020	10,408	55,062	101	7,606	4,402	215	13,663
4/25/2020	3,271	26,489	49	2,806	1,316	67	4,777

One interesting thing about the CDC data is that it shows an inexplicable rise in pneumonia deaths, one which coincides with arrival of covid deaths. Pneumonia deaths rose from their “normal” of 3500 a week to all the way up to nearly 10,000 in the week ending on April 11th.

Perhaps the focus on covid also caused greater attention to be given to pneumonia and more of it was diagnosed and found its way to death certificates than would otherwise have been the case.

Another possibility would be that anti-covid measures (returning patients to nursing homes before they had recovered, focus on harmful intrusive ventilation…) led to a steep increase in pneumonia deaths.