Could US COVID-19 Deaths Top 2,000 a Day?

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Could US COVID-19 Deaths Top 2,000 a Day?

© Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / Getty Images News via Getty Images

A growing number of scientists believe that the increase in daily deaths due to COVID-19 in America is not over. So far, it has moved above 1,000 a day. Social distancing remains scattered, and many adults still do not wear masks. The extent to which people do not protect themselves and others appears to drive the virus into a geographic area first. New cases rise, followed by deaths. Then, and only then, the ways people act to contain the disease become more common. It is, however, too late to keep tremendous peaks from occurring.

Those patterns have started to form in large hotspots, and there is more proof that a lack of preventive measures is deadly at a staggering level.

As the number of fatal cases has moved above 1,000 a day, among the questions is whether that will increase to 2,000. The widely followed University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation forecasts show 201,129 deaths in the United States by the first of November. An earlier model from the same organization showed a much lower figure.

To reach the 200,000 level, some days deaths almost will certainly have to come in at over 2,000 a day. The model calls for an increase in deaths of 57,000 between now and then. That date is a little over 12 weeks away.

[nativounit]
Just a few weeks ago, the 2,000 deaths a day in the United States seemed unimaginable. Most days since May 1, daily COVID-19 deaths were below 1,000. Now it has moved ahead of 1,000 a day. The pace toward 2,000 has begun to accelerate. As confirmed cases surge across much of the south and west, the daily figure increasingly has been over 70,000. Deaths tend to lag new cases by about two weeks.

A rise of deaths to 2,000 a day was unimaginable just two weeks ago. It is not just imaginable now; it has become likely.
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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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