The true number of Covid infections in the United States may be double official figures, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports.
The agency estimates that there have been 140 million COVID-19 cases in the U.S. from the virus’s arrival in America early 2020 until now.
Official CDC figures, last updated January 31, list at least 74 million cases. Johns Hopkins University, which updates its Covid cases numbers multiple times every day, has logged 79 million cases.
Due to testing shortages, especially early on in the pandemic and during the Omicron surge, asymptomatic cases and people testing positive at home and then never reporting their case to officials, experts have long known that Covid cases are drastically being undercounted.
The CDC reports that the real number of American infected with Covid is likely 140 million, nearly half of the U.S. population and almost double the official figure of over 70 million. Wisconsin has the highest estimated infection rate at 56%
Experts believe that many cases have likely been missed by official counts due to test shortages and asymptomatic cases going unreported
The CDC gathers this type of data using seroprevalence sampling estimates, where it works with local health authorities and officials in regions around America to estimate how many people have non-vaccine immunity to Covid.
Data from 46 of 50 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico was gathered for the estimate. Arizona, Nevada, North Dakota and Utah were the states not included.
After analyzing findings, the CDC reports that, as of January 31, 140,018,000 people have been infected in the U.S.
This is just under half of the nation’s total population, 43 percent, and nearly double the official case count – which also includes reinfections.
Wisconsin had the highest infection rate, with 56 percent of the states population likely catching Covid at some point over the past two years.
In total, more than half of the population of 13 U.S. states have likely been infected with the virus.
Vermont has recorded the lowest infection rate, per the CDC data, with less than 18 percent of residents contracting the virus.
Severe undercounting of Covid cases has long been expected by health experts, as currently only people that are professionally tested, or receive a PCR test, are included in figures.
There are also many people that might know they are sick, likely with Covid, and just not bother to get tested.
Around a third of Covid cases are also asymptomatic, meaning a person could be actively infected and have no idea.
A study from June of last year found that New York City likely only was able to count one out of every four cases from the first Covid surge that struck the city in spring of 2021.
Another study published in July found that up to 66 percent of Covid cases during the first year of the pandemic where likely logged.
While cases have been undercounted, it is extremely unlikely that deaths were miscounted in the same way as well.
Excess death figures published by the CDC find that around one million extra deaths have been recorded by America during the pandemic when compared to previous years.
The nation has recorded one million excess deaths over the past year. Just over 90 percent can be attributed to the virus itself, with ancillary factors like an increase in cancer and heart disease deaths playing a roll as well.
