How many more dialysis patients died during the first COVID-19 wave?

When COVID-19 first swept across the U.S., people with end-stage kidney disease—those who rely on dialysis to survive—were among the most vulnerable. A new look at national data estimates that between 7,000 and 10,300 more of these patients died during the first seven months of the pandemic than would have been expected in a normal year. That translates to roughly 9 to 13 extra deaths for every 1,000 people in this high-risk group. This study didn't try to pinpoint the exact causes of these excess deaths, which could include COVID-19 itself, disruptions to medical care, or other pandemic-related factors. It simply measures the gap between what happened and what was expected. The analysis covers a massive group—nearly 800,000 U.S. patients—but it's an observational snapshot, not a controlled experiment. It tells us the scale of the loss during that frightening period, but it can't prove what specifically drove it.