Doctors are sounding the alarm after discovering 1.5million Americans died after the Covid pandemic from a ‘silent epidemic’ gripping the US.

Boston University researchers compared the fatality rate in the US over 2022 and 2023 to that in 21 similar developed countries — including the UK and Australia.

After accounting for population sizes, results showed that an extra 820,000 Americans died in 2022 than would the case if the US had a fatality rate comparable to peer nations.

There were an extra 705,000 ‘excess deaths’ in the US in 2023 when the same logic was applied.

Both totals were roughly 30 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels — when 631,000 excess deaths were logged in 2019.

Excess deaths — the number of fatalities above what’s typically expected — surged during Covid due to direct virus deaths, overwhelmed healthcare systems, and economic hardship. But while the pandemic has officially ended, the elevated death toll has persisted.

Researchers blame the ongoing crisis on a combination of drug overdoses, gun violence, traffic accidents, and chronic diseases like heart failure and diabetes, all of which are hitting the US harder than other countries.

They also cited the lack of a robust social safety net — common in many European countries — as a major factor worsening the toll. 

The researchers said the uptick was linked to surging overdose deaths from drugs among other factors. Pictured above are people suffering from drug dependency in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The above shows people suffering from drug dependency in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were pictured on May 7

Dr Jacob Bor, an epidemiologist who led the research, said: ‘The US has been in a protracted health crisis for decades, with health outcomes far worse than other high-income countries.

‘This longer-run tragedy continued to unfold in the shadows of the Covid pandemic.’

For the study, published in JAMA Health Forum, the researchers calculated the rate of deaths per year for the US and that in 21 other developed countries.

These were: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.

These figures were compared, and analysis was carried out to reveal how many extra deaths the US was recording per year compared to the average for other developed countries.

For the study, researchers used data from the Human Mortality Database, the world’s leading scientific data resource on mortality in developed countries covering the years 1980 to 2023.

The analysis included 107million deaths in the US and 230million deaths recorded in the 21 other countries between 1980 and 2023.

The above graph shows the excess number of deaths being recorded in the US every year compared to that in similar nations. Zero means they both recorded the same number of excess deaths, while a minus figure means the US is recording fewer deaths than the other nations

Excess deaths have been treding upward in the US for years (shown above), before surging during the Covid pandemic

Over the 1980 to 2023 period, there were an estimated 14.7million extra deaths in the US compared to other countries.

US excess deaths have been rising slowly since 1980, the report found, and jumped during the Covid pandemic. 

They remain high today, with the data showing nearly 23 percent of all US deaths were excess deaths in 2023.

Senior study author and global health expert Dr Andrew Stokes said: ‘These deaths reflect not individual choices, but policy neglect and deep-rooted social and health system failures.

‘The Covid pandemic exposed structural weaknesses—including gaps in healthcare access and social supports—that have continued to fuel premature deaths even after the acute phase of the pandemic ended.’

Dr Stokes added: ‘Other countries show that investing in universal healthcare, strong safety nets, and evidence-based public health policies leads to longer, healthier lives.

‘Unfortunately, the US faces unique challenges; public distrust of government and growing political polarization have made it harder to implement policies that have proven successful elsewhere.’