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Finding suggests as many as 155,000 deaths, likely occurring outside of hospitals, not recognized as Covid related

The Covid-19 pandemic’s early death toll was much higher than the official US count, according to a new study that spotlights dramatic disparities in the uncounted deaths.

About 840,000 Covid-19 deaths were reported on death certificates in 2020 and 2021. But a group of researchers – using a form of artificial intelligence – estimate that as many as 155,000 unrecognized additional deaths likely occurred in that time outside of hospitals. That would mean about 16% of Covid-19 deaths went uncounted in those years.

The overall findings, published on Wednesday by the journal Science Advances, were close to estimates from other studies of pandemic deaths during that time. But the authors of the new study tried to determine exactly which deaths were more likely to be missing from the official tallies.