The biggest thing since covid: My new mortality book!
Maybe I’ll be accused of exaggeration or self-aggrandizement, but The Illustrated US Mortality Guide: An objective and eye-opening overview of deaths in the United States from 1968—2023: Just the numbers is my baby, so I think I’m entitled to be a little delusional about it, especially so soon after its birth.
This book baby has been in the making for more than a year, and finally, after seemingly endless additions, subtractions, modifications, and technical difficulties, it is up on Amazon, ready to be adored by all—who will hopefully be smitten enough to buy a copy, in Kindle or paperback—or even both, if they are particularly smitten.
Since this book just went up, certain features, such as the features that allow you to look inside, may unfortunately not be working yet. The inside is similar to my CVax Risk page, except leaner, stronger, and faster. I’ll be archiving that page soon, and replacing it with a page that provides some free book content instead.
As hard as this may be to believe, the Illustrated US Mortality Guide (the “Guide) contains absolutely no opinions or conclusions about the mortality data. It contains no statistical analyses—just the raw numbers, supplemented with a little basic math, as needed to make comparisons between years. The Guide is solely for the objective documentation of the official mortality data contained in the WONDER database—with a special focus on the historic years of 2020 (“the year of COVID-19”) and 2021 (“the year of the vaccine”).
Using colorful charts, concise descriptions, and informative tables, the Guide makes it easy to understand years of mortality data in minutes. It’s ideal for everyone from those with a casual interest in US deaths, to students and professionals needing a reliable reference for official mortality data.
Chapter 1 starts with an overview of US deaths from 1968 through 2023, including “excess deaths” since 2020. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 look at mortality in the last decade in more detail, including deaths by age group, gender, state, and month, and the weekly “death waves” of 2020 and 2021. Chapter 5 compares the 15 leading causes of death each year for the last 6 years. Chapter 6 concludes with a look at the numbers in an extraordinary mass casualty event, in which 50,000 more people than usual died in the New York City metropolitan area over the course of 8 weeks in Spring 2020.
I have a small but loyal blog following, for which I am extremely grateful. It would mean a great deal to me if as many of you as I can muster would purchase my new book, and if you are so moved, leave an honest review on Amazon. As an independent, self-published author, I cherish reader feedback, even if it is less than glowing—and so do Amazon algorithms. And feedback from my regular blog readers is the most valuable feedback of all.
I’m torn between favoring the Kindle or paperback version of the Guide, because both have advantages. Fair warning—a Kindle device is not the best way to view this book, IMO, because its display is black-and-white, and color plays a big role in this book. I think it looks great in everything from a tablet to a full-size screen (as far as I know so far), and because this book contains a lot of live links to saved WONDER searches, there are many advantages to the digital version. However, I think the print version of this book, in spite of its status as a humble self-published paperback, can not only make this important information accessible to more people, it may even become something of a collector’s item, due to its unique focus on the COVID years.
I hope you will join my quest to spread this important information everywhere, because the official mortality data matters. First, because the WONDER database is the most comprehensive record of US deaths available to the public. Second, because even those disputing the official mortality data, for whatever reason, need to know what they are disputing.