Coronavirus isolation may be contributing to thousands of excess dementia deaths in the U.S.

Young person and elderly person holding hands.
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From the beginning of the pandemic, health experts warned that the coronavirus' true toll would extend beyond illness and death directly related to COVID-19. As the health care system became overwhelmed earlier this year, many people who needed care for other medical issues received delayed treatment. But people suffering from dementia were perhaps most drastically affected, The Washington Post reports.

More than 134,200 people have died from Alzheimer's in the United States and other forms of dementia since March when the pandemic first really took hold across the country. The Post's analysis of federal data found that is 13,200 more deaths than expected compared with previous years. Indeed, the Post notes, dementia has produced by far the most excess fatalities not directly attributed to COVID-19 throughout the pandemic — more than diabetes and heart disease, the next two highest categories, combined.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.