September 13, 2020
On August 18, the National Safety Council (NSC) predicted that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may become the third leading cause of death in the United States for 2020, behind only heart disease and cancer. In 2018, the most recent year of final fatality data, the third leading cause of death was preventable deaths from drug overdoses, motor vehicle crashes, and falls.
The number of deaths from COVID-19 this year already has surpassed the number of preventable deaths in calendar year 2018. COVID-19 is a respiratory illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. COVID-19 currently is widespread in most U.S. communities and considered a workplace hazard.
The number of deaths in the U.S. from confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 now exceeds 170,000. There were 167,127 deaths from preventable causes in 2018.
An indirect consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic may be increases in opioid overdoses and the rate of motor vehicle fatality, according to the NSC. The