With 1,078 residents dead, the coronavirus pandemic now has a greater impact on the lives of Southern Carolinians than car accidents in 2018.
Given a 3.9% mortality rate for those who contract the disease in the United States, the chances of dying from COVID-19 are low. And with a mortality rate of 1.6 percent in South Carolina, an even lower proportion of patients with COVID-19 in the state of Palmetto has succumbed.
However, as reports of new cases increased in South Carolina, so did the number of people dying from the disease. And, just like wearing a seat belt and obeying the speed limit, wearing a mask and social distance can prevent deaths from happening.
Main causes of death in SC, 2019
Source: SC Department of Health and Environmental Control.
SC DHEC does not divide accidents into types in its analysis of the main causes of death. Accidents include fires, drowning and more.
| Cause of death | Number of deaths, 2019 |
|---|---|
| Heart disease | 10,049 |
| Cancer | 10,015 |
| All accidents | 3,062 |
| Chronic lower respiratory disease (includes bronchitis and asthma) | 2,813 |
| Cerebrovascular disease (including stroke) | 2,543 |
| Alzheimer’s disease | 2,261 |
| Diabetes Mellitus | 1,557 |
| Kidney failure | 950 |
| Sepsis | 820 |
| Suicide | 805 |
Stack the top ten causes of death in 2019 and coronavirus disease would already be in eighth place, ahead of kidney failure, sepsis and suicide. The pandemic has been present in South Carolina for less than five months.
Although the gross number of deaths from coronavirus disease has increased with the thousands of additional cases announced in South Carolina every day, the rate of people dying from COVID-19 has actually decreased across the country.
Michael Schmidt, a research microbiologist at the Medical University of South Carolina, said patients’ chances of life are improving because doctors now have access to two main drugs, remdesivir and dexamethasone.
“It was simply because smart infectious disease doctors were removing all barriers, trying to understand how they could preserve their patient’s life,” said Schmidt.
The good news of better outcomes for people who fall ill with the disease should not distract from the fact that more than 100,000 people in the United States lost their lives when they could otherwise live, said Schmidt.
“138,000 people dying is not something that we should tolerate in a healthcare system like the United States,” he said.
When the chances of death from opioid overdose outweighed those from motor vehicle accidents, the National Security Council made a point of spreading the message. The council says it is too early to know for sure what the real chances of dying from COVID-19 are.
President Donald Trump even mentioned car accident deaths in late March, noting that the numbers “are much higher than any numbers we’re talking about” with the coronavirus. Across the country, 135,807 people died during the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, according to the World Health Organization. This is well beyond the nearly 40,000 people who died in a motor vehicle accident in the United States in 2017.
According to new data released by the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control Thursday, the average number of people who die every day has steadily increased in recent weeks. The daily discharge is 25 people on July 3. Two-thirds of deaths occurred in people aged 71 or older; 40 percent are nursing home residents.
DHEC checks COVID-19 deaths by cross-referencing the information on death certificates that funeral directors must provide. The number of deaths attributable to coronavirus disease is much lower than those who die from each cancer and heart disease each year – more than 10,000 each.
But it is also more than the total number of other preventable causes of death in recent years, including assaults, gun suicides and unintentional drug overdoses. South Carolina has long exceeded the number of flu deaths in 2018: 444. So far, in 2020, DHEC has registered 149 people who have died of normal flu.
Dr. Chris McLain, medical director at Roper St. Francis Healthcare, said hospitals will begin to face resource shortages if the disease continues on its path in South Carolina. And if it does, the death rate could jump, because hospitals will also not be able to care for patients.
The state also announced its first pediatric death last weekend, McLain said.
“Even though the death rate may be 1.6 percent … if it’s you or a member of your family, it’s 100 percent for you. And it has always helped people to understand, you know, the personal impact of it and connects people back to the realization that these are real people.
“What is very clear from the data is that there are many behaviors that we can take to avoid this risk in our own lives,” he said.
Reach Mary Katherine Wildeman at 843-607-4312. Follow her on Twitter @mkwildeman.