800,000 Dead & Other Sad Statistics
Dec. 14th, 2021 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerIt's in the news this evening that the US has passed 800,000 deaths from Coronavirus. I clicked through a few articles and went to one of my favorite data sources to learn more, and... it's not pretty. It's pretty sad, actually. The grim milestone of 800k dead is only the start of the sad story.
If I was going to distill this sad story into a one-sentence plot synopsis, it would be "Despite the US rolling out vaccines a year ago and achieving widespread free availability 8 months ago, the Coronavirus has continued to spread even more rapidly than before because 'Covidiots' don't take it seriously."
A visit over to The New York Times' "Coronavirus in the U.S." page shows that while the new case rate has come down from its January high it spiked up again in August-September and remains high.
I've highlight 2 points in the chart. On January 11 the 7-day average hit a high of over 250,000 new cases daily. By then vaccinations had already begun though their availability was limited to the elderly and sickest at first. The rate drops steeply for the next few months. That reflects a combination of the broadening vaccine availability, distance in time from holiday gatherings that spread the virus, and a move toward more outdoors activities rather than indoor in spring and summer.
The second point I highlighted is September 2, when a summer surge topped off with a daily average over 164,000 new cases. As a raw number this is lower than the Jan 11 figure but it's actually worse in a way because by then a majority of Americans had been vaccinated. Recent data show the unvaccinated contract Covid-19 at 5x the rate of the vaccinated and die at 13x the rate (ibid).
Recent infection rates aren't as bad 4 months ago, but it's worth noting recent figures are still largely driven by the Delta variant. The Omicron variant isn't yet a majority of the cases— and definitely not a majority of the recent deaths— yet. The worst of it could be yet to come.
And what about deaths? Mostly what I've shared here is case rates. Yes, Covid-19 deaths continue to be a sad fact. ...Especially sad because most of them are avoidable. Covid-19 deaths passed 400,000 in the US in January. That means they've doubled in the second year of the pandemic, after the vaccine started rolling out. Net-net it's like we're not even trying. And Covid-19 deaths reported yesterday were 1,276 (ibid). Even with some 60% of all US residents vaccinated that continues to be the equivalent of a 9/11 tragedy every 3 days.
If I was going to distill this sad story into a one-sentence plot synopsis, it would be "Despite the US rolling out vaccines a year ago and achieving widespread free availability 8 months ago, the Coronavirus has continued to spread even more rapidly than before because 'Covidiots' don't take it seriously."
A visit over to The New York Times' "Coronavirus in the U.S." page shows that while the new case rate has come down from its January high it spiked up again in August-September and remains high.
I've highlight 2 points in the chart. On January 11 the 7-day average hit a high of over 250,000 new cases daily. By then vaccinations had already begun though their availability was limited to the elderly and sickest at first. The rate drops steeply for the next few months. That reflects a combination of the broadening vaccine availability, distance in time from holiday gatherings that spread the virus, and a move toward more outdoors activities rather than indoor in spring and summer.
The second point I highlighted is September 2, when a summer surge topped off with a daily average over 164,000 new cases. As a raw number this is lower than the Jan 11 figure but it's actually worse in a way because by then a majority of Americans had been vaccinated. Recent data show the unvaccinated contract Covid-19 at 5x the rate of the vaccinated and die at 13x the rate (ibid).
Recent infection rates aren't as bad 4 months ago, but it's worth noting recent figures are still largely driven by the Delta variant. The Omicron variant isn't yet a majority of the cases— and definitely not a majority of the recent deaths— yet. The worst of it could be yet to come.
And what about deaths? Mostly what I've shared here is case rates. Yes, Covid-19 deaths continue to be a sad fact. ...Especially sad because most of them are avoidable. Covid-19 deaths passed 400,000 in the US in January. That means they've doubled in the second year of the pandemic, after the vaccine started rolling out. Net-net it's like we're not even trying. And Covid-19 deaths reported yesterday were 1,276 (ibid). Even with some 60% of all US residents vaccinated that continues to be the equivalent of a 9/11 tragedy every 3 days.
