Study: COVID 3rd leading cause of death in US

WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNN) – COVID-19 was the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 45 to 54 last year. That’s according to a new study published Monday in Jama Internal Medicine.

Researchers looked at death certificates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and they also found that for 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death overall.

Cancer and heart disease were the top two causes of deaths overall in the past two years.

And, according to data from the CDC Tuesday, the Omicron offshoot BA.5 is now the dominant subvariant in the US.

Several studies have shown that BA.4 and BA.5 are able to evade much of the immune protection from vaccines and prior infections, which is likely what’s helping them spread so quickly.

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