As the COVID-19 death tally rises, so does it’s rank as the leading cause of death this year in America. Previously, the leading cause of death in the United States. The mayor of Los Angelos said on Monday that COVID-19 deaths just passed the number of deaths due to heart disease in America.

When I had fist heard the news, I was wondering what exactly they were talking about. I was on a forum, and a user who expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the way America has handled the pandemic as a whole, said he had overheard how COVID-19 is now the leading cause of death in America.

I did a Google search just to read if any legitimate sources were reporting the same story, and lo-and behold they were. America’s #1 leading cause of death ahs been heart disease over the last few years or so. Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Monday that “This weekend, we learned that un America COVID-19 is the leading cause of death in the United States. The virus has killed more than 1,800 Americans almost every day since April 7. That’s ahead of heart disease. That’s ahead of cancer,” during a news briefing.

The Washington Post also reported that COVID-19 was creeping up on the death tally for heart disease earlier this month, and the number of deaths in America did skyrocket from the original number in March of 337 deaths to an alarming 12,000 just a month later. But does that mean as a whole, COVID-19 is killing Americans more than heart disease?

Not everywhere.

Business Insider reported that New York state has 5,200 deaths do to the COVID-19, where as their second leading cause, heart disease, only saw 870. The state of Louisiana and Washington, DC, saw similar trends. Yet when we look at COVID-19 and heart disease deaths from other states like California and Washington (don’t ask, the states are weird) we observe the opposite trend. California saw only 332 deaths from COVID-19, whilst heart disease saw 1, 178.

Currently, the COVID-19 numbers in America are high, with 829,392 total cases and 46,149 deaths. I want to stress, that yes even though the United States has the most number of cases and the most number of deaths, they still have a smaller than half ratio (less than 50%) that their cases have resolved in death.