Skip to main content

COVID-19 DEATHS

   

From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

          DAY  USA  WORLD    Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82
July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572
Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130
Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82
Oct     21      1225      6849         571        703       85
Nov    25       2304    12025        620        518      118
Dec    30       3880    14748       1224       299      465
Jan     14        4142    15512        1151         189      712
Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398
Mar      2       1989     9490        1726       110      194
April     6        906    11787         4211       631       37
May     4        853     13667        3025      3786     59 
June    1        287    10637         2346      3205      95
 July    7         251      8440        1595        817      411
Aug     4         656    10120        1118         532      423 
Sept   22      2228      9326          839       279     124
Oct      6       2102      8255          543       315       59
Nov    3        1436      7830         186        458       23
Dec     1       1633      8475          266        477       28
Jan     7        2025      6729         148         285     140
Feb     2        2990   12012          946        991      175
Mar     2        1778     7756          335         173       28 
Apr     1          439      4056         290          52       12
May    5          225      2404          151            ?       64 
         12          222      1995           136           9       21
         19          201      1801           115           20      31
         26          217      1528          136           14      49
June   2          216       1413         130          10       31
          9          195      1526         148           24       24 
        15          305      1382         289           11       26

Summary:
  • Just when you thought all was going well, these new Omicron subvariants continued to infect a variety of people, some for the second time.
    • Late night TV hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, James Corden and Stephen Colbert, plus Jon Batiste.
    • Dr. Anthony Fauci, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Doug Emhoff (husband of Kamala Harris).
    • Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles (second time) and Duchess of Cornwall Camilla.
    • Elton John, Robin Roberts, Sarah Jessica Parker/Mathew Broderick, Bill Maher, Justin Bieber, Simon Cowell, Daniel Craig, Larry King, Miley Cyrus, Anderson Cooper, Mick Jagger, Whoopie Goldberg, Kelly Rippa, Michael Strahan, Eric Clapton, Sean Penn, David/Victoria Beckham, Amy Schumer, Zoey Deutch, Madonna, Mel Gibson, Rock Johnson, Kevin Hart, Antonio Banderas, Bryan Cranston, Usain Bolt,  Novak Djokovic, Jack Nicklaus, 17 players and staff of the Miami Marlins baseball team, Barry Manilow, 6 members of BTS, Hugh Jack for the second time...and more.
  • A few older celebrities have passed away, like Charley Pride (right, 86), Trini Lopez (83), Tom Seaver (75), Phil Spector (81), Cloris Leachman (94), Meat Loaf (74)...but no youngish famous person.
  • Of course many notable people were infected and did not survive.  Here is a list of more than a thousand from Wikipedia.
  • I don't think I know one person who has died from COVID.  Seniors' communities are notorious for this pandemic, as those 65 and older (16% of national population) represent 75% of all deaths.
    • While Hawaii has had the worst number of new cases/capita of all states in the Union for several weeks now, there has been only about a death/day.
    • In other words, with 1000 cases/day, the mortality rate is 0.1%, which is about the same as the seasonal flu.
      • In fact, as the number of COVID cases are certainly higher, for those who take rapid tests at home generally don't report a positive result, there is a factor of from 2 to 10 affecting the actual mortality rate.
      • Thus, with the level of vaccination/booster shots, plus previous infections, this means that the mortality rate of COVID-19 today is much lower than the seasonal flu.  
      • Of course, the number of actual flu cases is also largely unknown, as the asymptomatic rate is guessed to be 30%, plus many flu cases are just not reported.
      • The bottom line is fuzzy, but the mortality rate of our pandemic is today similar to the seasonal flu, which society tolerates.
      • At least for Hawaii, which I think is generally representative of the nation and world.
    • Hawaii ranks #1 in lowest rate of deaths in nursing homes with 19/1000.
  • To summarize:
    • Worldometer World COVID-19 deaths:  6,336,523.
    • How does COVID-19 compare to the Spanish Flu of 1918/19 in deaths?
      • The total deaths a century ago are a huge guess, with estimates up to 100 million deaths.  However, 50 million is generally taken to be the reasonable number, with 500 million cases, or a mortality rate of 10%.  Keep in mind that current Worldometer data indicate that the mortality rate of COVID-19 is about one-tenth, or 1.2%.
      • The population in 1918 was 1.8 billion. 
      • Thus, there was a 1 chance in 36 of dying in that pandemic of a century ago.
Death is so permanent.  Everyone reading this is alive.  Consider yourself lucky.  Sure, we have a pandemic, but the mortality rate is maybe now lower than the seasonal flu.  Go out and safely enjoy life.

-
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases.  Very few are aware that a new one,   BA.4.6,  is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples .  However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6.  Here is a  reference  as to what this means.  A series of two injections is involved.  Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab  co-packaged with  cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on  subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics.  Thursday was my pandemic day for years.  Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments.  All these  subvariants  derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms.  One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell.  From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant,  BA.2.86,  also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to  lose hair  for...
Post a Comment
Read more

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota.  Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north.  Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge.  If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic.  Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing.  The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University.  Caught a bus. Was called the  Century 21 Exposition .  Also the Seattle World's Fair.  10 million joined me on a six-month run.  My first. These a...
Post a Comment
Read more