A: We REALLY hope so. But we’ve learned that making predictions during this pandemic is… unwise. After Delta spoiled optimistic summer and back to school plans in much of the U.S, the fall has brought an unexpected dive in confirmed case numbers. The 7-day rolling average of around 84K/day on October 16th is down more …
A: Yes- BUT those odds are not as good as they sound. Ask yourself- would you let your family board a plane if 1 out of 100 passengers were going to be thrown out of the plane mid-flight? We continue to hear the “99% survivable” argument as a reason not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. …
The U.S. passed a somber milestone this week of 700,000 official COVID-19 deaths. It is difficult to absorb that there are names, faces, and families behind each of these numbers. Today we remember 35-year-old Kimmie Pavone, a phlebotomist who had tried to get pregnant for 10 years. She delivered her baby at 30 weeks while …
A: No. It’s bad. ➡️ The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the largest loss of life expectancy seen in many countries since World War II. ⬇️ U.S. males saw some of the worst losses—2.2 years of lost life expectancy in 2020. The drop was 1.65 years for U.S. females. We’ve talked about “excess mortality” in …
As the official U.S. COVID-19 death toll passed 663,000 this past week, this means that roughly 1 in every 500 Americans has died of COVID-19. Sadly, as we wrote about last week, this number is likely an *underestimate* of the actual death toll. It also obscures social disparities in the burden of COVID-19 mortality. For …
/* This is NOT a drill : ICUs in critical condition */ 🏥 1 in 4 U.S. hospitals report worrisome ICU bed occupancy levels, up from 1 in 10 from June As AP reports, “a maxed-out ICU can become a staffing and logistical nightmare.” Staff shortages are particularly acute in many places. At one hospital …
A: Sadly, we are most likely UNDER-COUNTING Covid-19 deaths. While the official global death toll from Covid-19 is now 4.6 million, the actual toll is estimated to be close to 15.4 MILLION people. Among the most persistent COVID-19 myths is the idea that COVID-19 deaths are being over-counted, including stories of victims of motorcycle accidents …
A: It’s a mixed bag—cases *have* fallen from their peak but have now plateaued at a high level. TL;DR: ➡️ Cases remain stuck at a high level in the UK, despite high vaccination rates (higher than the US). This speaks to the transmissibility of Delta and means things could get worse in the US. ➡️ …
Es confuso. Este número es realmente una buena noticia y refleja el alto porcentaje de personas vacunadas en el Reino Unido. 🙋♀️ ¿Y ahora qué? A medida que aumenten las vacunaciones, el total de hospitalizaciones disminuirá, pero la proporción de hospitalizaciones de personas vacunadas aumentará. Esto NO es porque las vacunas no están funcionando, sino …
How do we keep a pulse check on COVID-induced hospital overwhelm? Researchers monitor strain with a summary metric: % of total hospital beds filled with COVID-19 patients. No metric is perfect, but this one’s pretty darn useful. And by this measure, things are looking pretty grim in southern hospitals right now. Here’s the skinny on …
