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Have monthly deaths from COVID-19 been consistently higher under Biden than under Trump?

Wednesday, March 2, 2022
By Jacob Alabab-Moser
NO

Since March 2020, when Americans began dying from COVID-19 in significant numbers and the disease was declared a national emergency, monthly death rates have fluctuated widely, driven by vaccine availability, successive waves of infections, and other factors scientists are still seeking to understand.

Comparing the ten months in 2020 when the Trump administration was overseeing the pandemic with the same calendar months under the Biden administration in 2021, deaths averaged about 8,000 per month lower under Biden (see the table based on Centers for Disease Control data for detail). Deaths peaked in December 2020 and then declined rapidly during the first half of 2021 as Americans became increasingly vaccinated against COVID-19. Deaths spiked again in the second half of 2021 as the Delta variant spread.

To date, the pandemic has claimed more than 950,000 American lives, with 385,444 deaths occurring during 2020, 460,277 in 2021, and 100,871 in 2022.

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