Comparing deaths from previous years for the same month(s) (of the pandemic), along with the expected number of deaths (projected) for 2020, is how this sort of

Comparing deaths from previous years for the same month(s) (of the pandemic), along with the expected number of deaths (projected) for 2020, is how this sort of calculation is made, on a preliminary basis. There is an (older) Financial Times article that did an excellent analysis on this (free to read): https://www.ft.com/content/a26fbf7e-48f8-11ea-aeb3-955839e06441 https://www.ft.com/content/a26fbf7e-48f8-11ea-aeb3-955839e06... But, this article (also free to read) came out today from the Financial Times and is way better. The UK is doing far worse than the US interestingly: https://www.ft.com/content/6b4c784e-c259-4ca4-9a82-648ffde71bf0 https://www.ft.com/content/6b4c784e-c259-4ca4-9a82-648ffde71... Countries like France, Spain, and Italy (Mediterranean countries) in particular rank badly (besides having an uncontrollable infection problem) for the calculation of total excess deaths (compared to previous years) because they have some of the highest average lifespans in the world, largest percentages of elderly populations, and have extremely high quality universal healthcare (for example, the third leading cause of death in the US is actually preventable medical errors, so we really do not have phenomenal healthcare, even if you have “great insurance” and “can pay for it”).