Thousands more than expected died in Vermont during the pandemic

"Vermont reported almost 3,000 more deaths from 2020 to 2023 than would have been expected were it not for the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — but less than one-third of those deaths have been directly attributed to the virus."

"The increased mortality points to a rising tide of challenges Vermonters experienced during lockdown: delayed access to health care, isolation and a worsening of the state’s decades-long opioid crisis."

"The additional deaths could also point to a hidden cause — Covid-related deaths that were not recorded as such, according to Steven Woolf, a population health researcher at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine."

Erin Petenko, vtdigger

May 11, 2023