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The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Congress Wednesday the world is still in the beginning stages of the coronavirus pandemic, which he said could go on for “many months and possibly many years.” (May 6)

AP Domestic

The claim: Opioids, heart disease and cancer kill more Americans annually than the coronavirus.

As the coronavirus death toll continues to rise in the U.S., it is drawing comparisons to other causes of death.

One recurring argument is that COVID-19 has a lower death toll than the seasonal flu, cancer and heart disease, among other causes of death.

Death toll comparisons have made national headlines. In late March, President Donald Trump was criticized for echoing Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson’s comments comparing the coronavirus to car accidents. Dr. Anthony Fauci rejected Johnson’s comparison, calling it a false equivalency. 

On social media, a viral post claimed more people die from other things than the coronavirus, including from wars, heart disease, opioids and cancer. 

Comparing the numbers

As of May 8, the reported coronavirus death toll in the United States is at more than 75,000.

Experts have warned that the number may be an underestimate, however, as there is usually a one- to two-week lag in data, and pneumonia may be listed as the cause of death in cases where there was not adequate access to testing. There also are incidences of false negatives.

The first comparison in the post is the Vietnam War. The post accurately states that the war had 58,220 reported American casualties. The coronavirus death toll surpassed that number in late April.

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Another comparison is America’s annual death toll from opioids. In October 2017, Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency, after nearly 64,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2016.

The post incorrectly states that 67,000 Americans die annually from opioids. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 67,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2018 — opioids made up almost 70% of this total, meaning that America’s annual opioid death toll is actually around 46,900. The coronavirus surpassed 46,000 deaths in April. 

Cancer is included in the list, and the American Cancer Society estimates that the disease will kill about 606,000 Americans in 2020.

The post also includes the death toll of cigarettes, which kill about 480,000 Americans annually, according to the CDC.

However, there is likely some overlap between the cancer and cigarette death tolls, because cigarettes are often an underlying cause of various cancers. The same is true for heart disease, which kills about 647,000 Americans annually, according to the CDC. 

The post compared the coronavirus death toll to Alzheimer’s disease, which killed 120,000 Americans in 2017, and diabetes which killed 83,564 Americans in 2017. The number of annual abortions in the U.S. stated in the post — 860,000 — also is accurate.

The context of the death tolls

While the annual figures listed in the post are mostly accurate, important context is missing.

The coronavirus has only been closely tracked in the United States since January, so the current death toll only accounts for the months in which cases were recorded — and there are seven months left in the year. The number of cases also is likely underestimated because of inconsistencies and lack of testing.

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The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, a public model that has been cited by the White House, now estimates that the U.S. could see 135,000 deaths by August. Trump said U.S. deaths could reach 100,000, which is double his prediction from two weeks ago.

A significant difference between the coronavirus and the other causes of death listed in the post is that COVID-19 is the only one that is contagious.

Our rating: Partly false

The claim in the post has been rated PARTLY FALSE. While the annual figures are mostly accurate, the post is misleading about the annual number of deaths from the coronavirus. The virus death toll has only been tracked for a few months, and many deaths likely were not counted. Many more deaths are likely by the end of 2020.

Additionally, the causes of death listed in the post are fundamentally different than the coronavirus, because none of them is contagious. 

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