We are rightly concerned about deaths from COVID-19. It is a deadly disease. However, in all of 2020 there were about 350,000 premature deaths due to COVID, while cardiovascular disease prematurely killed more than double that number. There will be more COVID deaths in 2021, but it will run its course and become small in impact in future years. Cardiovascular disease will continue to account for more than 1/3 of American deaths.
In any given year, no other cause of death comes close to heart disease.
Leading causes of death 2020:
- Cardiovascular disease: 809,046
- COVID-19 (estimated): 350,000
- Accidents (unintentional): 173,040
- Lower respiratory diseases: 156,979
- Lung cancer: 135,720
- Alzheimer’s disease: 121,499
- Diabetes: 87,647
- Colon cancer: 53,200
- Liver disease: 51,565
- Influenza and pneumonia: 49,783
- Suicide: 47,511
- Pancreatic cancer: 47,050
- Breast cancer: 42,690
- Prostate cancer: 33,330
- Leukemia: 23,100
- Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma: 19,940
Sources:
Center for Disease Control
American Heart Association
American Cancer Society
