New data shows suicide deaths across the United States dropped in 2020, though the full picture remains unclear, say experts, who worry that a sharp rise in fatal drug overdoses and possible cause-of-death misclassification in people who had COVID-19 at the time of their suicide, may be masking the true number. Preliminary data in a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)—based on figures from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) National Vital Statistics System (NVSS)—shows that there were 2,677 fewer deaths by suicide in 2020 compared to the previous year. Even as the overall number of deaths in the United States last year grew by nearly 20 percent, deaths by suicide fell to a five-year low of 44,834. This is down from 47,511 in 2019, 48,344 in 2018, 47,173 in 2017, 44,965 in 2016—and up slightly from 44,193 in 2015. The JAMA report is based …