Death certificates reveal that US hit grim COVID milestone

By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — When the U.S. hit 1 million COVID-19 deaths, the news was driven by a government tally derived from death certificates. But that’s not the only tally. And you may be wondering, where do these different numbers come from? Deaths certificates have long been considered the most comprehensive record of deaths and their causes. But early in the pandemic, officials recognized the COVID-19 death certificate data was sluggish and incomplete. So experts and news organizations began looking to other real-time sources. They turned to state health department tallies derived from preliminary reports that were mainly of people diagnosed with COVID-19 who went to a hospital and died. Johns Hopkins University became a leader in posting those numbers.