I also recommend this great piece in the @us.theconversation.com by @wrigleyfield.bsky.social @astokespop.bsky.social & colleagues walking through some of their great work to counter this myth of "overcounting" coming out of previous news cycle.

theconversation.com/covid-19-dea...

This work was a team effort—grateful to lead author @eugeniopaglino.bsky.social and coauthor @wrigleyfield.bsky.social

Coverage via @busph.bsky.social

www.bu.edu/sph/news/art...

Education structures exposure to risk.

Adults without a BA are more likely to work unstable jobs, live in areas without access to healthy food, and face financial and logistical barriers to medical care.

These conditions increase the risk of chronic disease and premature death.

Adults without a BA accounted for over 260,000 excess deaths from circulatory diseases in 2023.

Diabetes was another key contributor.

Among men without a BA, nearly 1 in 3 excess deaths were from drug poisonings or other external causes.

Among adults without a BA, mortality in 2023 was 26% higher than expected.

For college graduates, it was 8% higher.

This divergence began before the pandemic, widened sharply during it, and persisted even after COVID deaths declined

Here we have calculated the number of excess deaths attributable to the US mortality disadvantage. This is based on estimates of the number of US deaths that would have been expected each year had the US population experienced the age-specific mortality rates of other wealthy nations.

This work was a team effort—grateful to lead author Jacob Bor and coauthors Rafeya Raquib, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, Steffie Woolhandler & David Himmelstein. (5/5)

Coverage via @busph.bsky.social

www.bu.edu/sph/news/art...

#MissingAmericans #ExcessDeaths #HealthPolicy @jama.com

The US mortality crisis is decades in the making—shaped by policies that fostered car-centric cities, fragmented health care, weak safety nets, and poor nutrition. These systemic failures cost lives every day—and reversing course will require bold, structural change. (4/5)

In 2023, 46% of all US deaths under age 65 were avoidable. That’s nearly 1 in 2 deaths in working-age adults—driven by overdoses, gun violence, car crashes, and chronic disease, rooted in policy failures and structural neglect. (3/5)

Since 1980, the US has accumulated nearly 15 million “missing Americans”—lives lost because our death rates remain far higher than in other wealthy nations. This crisis began long before COVID and shows no sign of slowing. (2/5)

A neat paper by @wrigleyfield.bsky.social @astokespop.bsky.social and team looks into this post 2010 period, showing that death rates from many different conditions increased relative to previous trends.

More evidence of generalized #populationhealth stressors.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...