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Andrew C. Stokes

Associate Professor of Global Health & Sociology, Boston University School of Public Health
Chapter Member: Boston SSN
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About Andrew

As a demographer and population health researcher, Stokes' scholarship examines the social, economic, and health policy determinants of rising mortality inequities within the U.S. and the widening U.S. mortality disadvantage compared to other high-income countries. His research interests span from upstream factors such as tobacco regulatory policy and food environments to downstream factors such as chronic pain and disability. In his work, Stokes seeks to combine novel methods from demography, epidemiology, and data science towards the goal of generating timely evidence to shape health policy and improve public health.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | Member Spotlight | In the News | Publications

Contributions

Public Health Should Embrace GLP-1 Drugs without Abandoning Obesity Prevention

Commentary,

In the News

Opinion: "American Millennials are Dying at an Alarming Rate," Andrew C. Stokes (with Elizabeth Wrigley-Field and Jacob Bor), Slate Magazine, August 20, 2025.
Opinion: "COVID-19 Deaths in the US Continue to be Undercounted, Research Shows, Despite Claims of ‘Overcounts’," Andrew C. Stokes (with Dielle Lundberg, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, and Yea-Hung Chen), The Conversation, January 25, 2023.
Opinion: "Low Vaccine Booster Rates are Now a Key Factor in COVID-19 Deaths – And Racial Disparities in Booster Rates Persist," Andrew C. Stokes (with Dielle Lundberg, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, and Rafeya Raquib), The Conversation, August 30, 2022.
Opinion: "‘Hidden’ COVID Fatalities Show Us Death Investigations Need Reform," Andrew C. Stokes (with Dielle J. Lundberg and Elizabeth Wrigley-Field), The Hill, July 25, 2022.

Publications

"Excess Deaths Attributable to the Los Angeles Wildfires from January 5 to February 1, 2025" (with Eugenio Paglino and Rafeya V. Raquib). JAMA 334, no. 11 (2025): 1018-1019.

Aims to estimate the number of excess deaths attributable to the Los Angeles wildfires using an interrupted time series design.

"Excess US Deaths Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic" (with Jacob Bor, Rafeya V. Raquib, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, Steffie Woolhandler, and David U. Himmelstein). JAMA Health Forum 6, no. 7 (2025).

Assesses trends in excess US deaths before (1980-2019), during (2020-2022), and after (2023) the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finds that excess mortality spiked sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in 2020–2021, and although U.S. mortality declined in 2022–2023, other high-income countries experienced a far smaller surge.

"Diverging Mortality Trends by Educational Attainment in the US" (with Eugenio Paglino and Elizabeth Wrigley-Field). JAMA Health Forum 6, no. 6 (2025).

Examines trends in US mortality rates by sex and educational attainment before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Mortality Trends among Early Adults in the United States, 1999-2023" (with Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, Rafeya V. Raquib, Kaitlyn M. Berry, and Keeley J. Morris). JAMA Network Open 8, no. 1 (2025).

 Documents trends in early adult mortality across the pre–COVID-19 pandemic, pandemic, and postpandemic periods.

"The Role of Obesity in Exceptionally Slow US Mortality Improvement" (with Samuel H. Preston and Yana C. Vierboom). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115, no. 5 (2025): 957-961.

Aims to identify the extent to which rising body mass index (BMI) is responsible for reductions in the rate of mortality improvement in the United States.