COVID-19 Deaths in US Top Annual Gun Suicide Figure

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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COVID-19 Deaths in US Top Annual Gun Suicide Figure

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Fatal cases of COVID-19 hit 24,348 Tuesday, according to the Bing COVID-19 Tracker. This is out of 587,752 confirmed cases. According to the Gun Violence Archive, gun suicides totaled 24,090 last year. This was 61% of all gun violence deaths in 2019. It took only 45 days for COVID-19 deaths to match the suicide tally for the entire 2019 calendar year.

Gun suicides this year have hit 6,930 through April 14. Fatal cases of COVID-19 in New York City have reached 7,349 so far. The figures show how quickly COVID-19 fatalities have grown. The lowest of the widely circulated models is that COVID-19 deaths will reach 60,000 by the end of August. If self-distancing and sheltering at home end too quickly, this number is expected to rise well above that.

The gun suicide figure will not be the only horrible annual death number COVID-19 will pass. Total gun violence deaths were 39,442 last year, which included murders, accidental deaths and suicides.

There were 46,802 deaths due to opioid overdoses in 2018, based on an analysis of the most recent available data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There were a total of 67,367 drug overdose deaths. COVID-19 deaths almost will certainly cross this level sometime in the fall.

COVID-19 figures are often compared to influenza. Deaths from this were 55,672, according to the CDC. Deaths from diabetes were 83,564 in a year. In addition, Alzheimer’s disease killed 121,404 Americans. Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases) killed 146,383. Chronic lower respiratory diseases killed 160,201. And Accidents (unintentional injuries) killed 169,936.

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Not that long ago, federal officials set the possible death toll between 100,000 and 240,000, based on models at the time. This was before it was revised down to 60,000. However, the lower number is based on several assumptions. Social distancing is first among these. People who do not self-quarantine for the suggested 14 days also could cause a widening infection rate. The number of carriers without symptoms is still impossible to count. Blood testing is the primary reason for that. Some of these tests produce inaccurate results. For the death rate to remain below the larger forecasts, blood tests will be important.

Right now, the public is focused on the 60,000 deaths by August figure. It may be correct. However, the fact that COVID-19 deaths have passed gun suicides in such a short time is a sign of what could happen if there is a second wave of infections, perhaps because Americans start to be casual about the disease again.

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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