“The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there have been as many as 381,896 so-called excess deaths identified since Feb. 1, a number that represents mortality above normal statistical expectations. That’s significantly more than the number of confirmed Covid deaths, and may point to fatalities missed due to limited initial Covid testing and other factors.”
Other possible explanations may include:
(1) people afraid to break quarantine to get non-COVID symptoms checked;
(2) states simply falsifying their numbers;
(3) the key words “as many as.” 381K represents the maximum estimate within a predicted range. The minimum of that range is actually lower than the reported COVID deaths. The mid-point of the range is 328,000, fairly comparable to the reported number of COVID fatalities (303,000).