New research suggests deaths in America have been seriously undercounted.
According to Gizmodo, a new study estimates that between March and July, there were 225,000 more deaths in the US than expected.
Of those fatalities, a little over half were officially attributed to the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 can damage the heart, which may partially account for the increase in deaths attributed to heart disease seen in some weeks.
States with spikes in COVID-19 deaths also saw more excess deaths generally during those spikes, further implicating the virus as the cause.
COVID-19 is also thought to have caused thousands of deaths indirectly, by people being too afraid to seek medical help for chronic conditions.