Opinion: Why it’s so difficult to count the number of heat-related deaths
In late July, as parts of the southern U.S. approached 30 days of temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, President Biden took to the podium to announce a plan to mitigate the impacts from extreme heat. During this speech, the president reiterated a truth surprising to most people: Heat kills more people in the U.S. than any other weather-related event.
Almost immediately, social media filled with challenges to this premise. Doesn’t cold weather kill more than heat? What about wildfires? People shared different journal articles estimating different figures for deaths or illness to prove their point that their token event kills or injures more people. Nevertheless, by nearly every calculation, in the U.S., heat remains the largest threat to human health than any other weather-related event.
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