Above cancer and heart disease, the coronavirus is shown to have become America's leading cause of death in a graph published by Dr. Maria Danilychev of California.
Using the data she compared from the Center of Disease Control and Worldometer.info, a statistics and data website, Danilychev compared the US's top 15 leading causes of death. Danilychev, who practices hospice and palliative medicine, published the link to her graph on her Twitter account.
Using interactive time lapse analysis, she shows how coronavirus deaths have risen from just 12 on March 15, to overtaking heart disease, the nations prior lead cause of death, with 1,940 deaths on April 8. For comparison, heart disease had 200 fewer deaths at 1,774 and cancer came in third with 1,641.
Danilychev published another graph a week before her latest, which showed coronavirus in third place, below heart disease and cancer, but above accidents, lung disease, Alzheimer's disease and the seasonal flu.
"The US has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world. We must take it seriously," she tweeted with an additional interactive graph, showing another interactive time lapse of the countries with the leading number of coronavirus cases: The graph ends with the US in the lead. The time lapse shows the US above 150,000 cases, Italy just above 100,000 and Turkey in tenth place with just over 10,000.
US has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world. We must take it seriously. https://t.co/Ee2GH4BnUF(CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE TO SEE VISUALIZATION)#COVID19 #USA #coronavirus #cases #socialdistancing #STAYHOME #wolrd #statistics #worldometer #data pic.twitter.com/XzaqR1NK6P
— Maria Danilychev, MD, HMDC (@DrDanilychevMD) April 1, 2020
Later, she added that she made the graph to raise awareness, and continued by saying, "Shockingly, many people in the US are still not taking it seriously. Hoping this graphic will help people wake up and do what it takes to prevent further spread of the virus and decrease the number of preventable deaths."
As of the time of this article, John Hopkin's University's COVID-19 map with updated information on the total number of global cases, shows the US to have nearly 500,000 confirmed cases. Spain comes in second with close to 160,000 confirmed cases and Italy is third with 140,000.
Though places like Italy, Spain and France rank among the highest in their death toll, New York City alone is fifth in the global tally, shown to have more deaths than Hubei, China, the epicenter of the outbreak.
The JHU website also keeps track of how many have reportedly recovered. Of the just over 1,600,000 confirmed cases until now, just over 360,000 (more than a fifth - 22%) are reported to no longer have the virus.