Excess Deaths Reveal the Substantial Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Mortality in the State of Florida.

Tatar, Moosa; Habibdoust, Amir; Wilson, Fernando A

Our study found that Florida experienced 19 241 excess deaths from March to September 2020.1 Official numbers link 14 317 of these deaths to COVID-19, suggesting that 4924 excess deaths are unexplained. In 2020, Florida experienced a significant increase in all-cause mortality (Table 1), and prior research indicated substantial excess deaths during the pandemic.2-4 Little is known about the change in deaths from non-COVID-19 causes during the pandemic; however, suicidal ideation and substance use increased nationally, for example, which may have led to increased deaths from these causes.5 On the other hand, studies suggest that avoidance of health care services, lack or restricted access to care, limited availability of COVID-19 diagnostic tests, and severe lack of contact tracing may have resulted in several deaths that were not counted in official COVID-19 death records, especially in the beginning of the pandemic.3,4,6 (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print June 10, 2021: e1-e2. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306340).