Dr Maria Danilychev (pictured), from San Diego, California, says coronavirus is the third-leading cause of death in the US
A California physician says the novel coronavirus is currently the leading cause of death in the US.
Dr Maria Danilychev, who practices hospice/palliative medicine in San Diego, calculated that COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, kills about 748 Americans every day.
This means that fewer people die of chronic lung disease, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, stroke, kidney disease – and even the seasonal flu.
Only two conditions – heart disease and cancer – are deadlier than coronavirus, killing 1,774 and 1,641 people, respectively, every day.
Dr Danilychev created a graphic charting the rapid increase of coronavirus deaths compared to other diseases throughout the nation.
She used data from Worldmeters.info – a statistics and data website – and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Between March 1 and March 20, COVID-19 caused some of the fewest deaths, increasing from killing 0 people per day to 50 per day.
The virus kills about 748 people each day, more than lung disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s and diabetes do each day (pictured)
Only heart disease and cancer are more fatal, killing 1,774 and 1,641 people each day, respectively. Pictured: On March 25, COVID-19 was the seventh-leading cause of death
Dr Anthony Fauci of the NIH says he believes between 100,000 and 200,000 Americans will die of COVID-19. Pictured: On March 1, COVID- 19 still had not killed anybody in the US
But then, on March 21, the virus surpassed lung obstruction. Slowly, it usurped Parkinson’s, high blood pressure, sepsis, and liver disease.
On March 25, coronavirus was the seventh-leading cause of death, killing 249 people each day. On March 27, it was fifth, before moving into third the next day.
According to the CDC, heart disease kills 647,000 Americans per year while cancer kills 595,000 per year,
Accidents, which were previously was the third-leading cause of death, kills about 169,000 people annually, to the CDC says.
Figures from The New York Times have previously estimated that coronavirus could kill more Americans than cancer, heart disease or dementia in 2020.
In an average scenario, during which there is an overall infection rate of 30 percent and a fatality rate of two percent, coronavirus would cause 1.97 million deaths – ahead of heart disease and cancer.
In the worst-case scenario, 6.99 million Americans would die from coronavirus – 2.74 million of them being those aged 80 and above.
This is a situation in which 70 percent of the population is infected and there is a three percent fatality rate.
That would be 10 times as many US deaths as from heart disease and 11 times as many deaths as from cancer.
However, this likely does not include interventions such as drive-thru testing, barring visitors from nursing homes – and other social-distancing measures.
Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and infectious Diseases, told CNN’s State of the Union over the weekend that he expects between 100,00 and 200,000 Americans will die
Currently, more than 911,000 people worldwide have been infected and more than 45,000 people have died.
Across the US and in territories, there are more than 200,000 confirmed cases and more than 4,000 deaths.