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U.S. Covid Death Toll Surpasses 700k Despite Availability of Vaccines

bsaul 5y ago
A very popular covid comorbodity is obesity and diabetes, which are extremely common conditions in the US. It would be interesting to split those death rates statistics by those conditions as well ( and not just age group). It may help understand the epidemic, and encourage vulnerable people to get vaccinated. But also maybe focus the public's attention on the atrocious food habits most americans are living with.
- outime 5y ago
  This is going to sound cynical but what you suggest doesn’t make money so there’ll never be such campaign in US unless there’s a way to make more money out of it compared to the current state of things - which is very difficult. The entire health care industry and policies in US are atrocious.
  - TheFreim 5y ago
    I wonder if any data exists that would indicate how much money the Healthcare industry would lose if the obesity rate dropped by X percent. Would be an interesting thing to look at.
    - pbaka 5y ago
      It's not just the healthcare industry. You also have to factor in competing industrial lobbying interest who'd lose money (or at least need to fundamentaly retool and reorganise): agriculture, processed foods, retail food distribution, chemicals, etc.
- CodeGlitch 5y ago
  Yes, also see the UK where we also suffer similar levels of obesity, and have seen high numbers of covid deaths as a result. However we're not allowed to talk about it due to "body shaming", even though the ones who are obese suffer throughout their lives.
NiekvdMaas 5y ago
What's interesting is that this number matches very closely with the recorded excess mortality: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-excess-deaths-covid?country=~USA https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-excess-deaths-... - for those who think the COVID-19 death numbers are artificially blown up.
- ekianjo 5y ago
  the mortality has largely slowed down after the vaccines were introduced... as shown by this graph.
  - guilhas 5y ago
    Or, since it's all causes, it might show that covid measures like lockdowns, and others, actually killed more people instead of saving
    - thebruce87m 5y ago
      There are some countries that locked down that show no excess mortality: https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/ https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/ so at least we can say not all lockdowns result in mass casualties. A “lockdown sceptic” may argue that not all lockdowns are the same of course.
ekianjo 5y ago
> The new and alarming surge of deaths this summer means that the coronavirus pandemic has become the deadliest in American history, overtaking the toll from the influenza pandemic of 1918 and 1919, which killed about 675,000 people. Typically you calculate deaths at the percentage of the population if you are seriously trying to make a point. It's not like the population of 100 years ago was remotely the same as now. High journalism again, NYT.
- TheFreim 5y ago
  Do you know how this current event compares in terms of percentage of population deaths? Would be hard because I think you'd have to control for health as well since it wouldn't be fair to compare current obesity rates with the past.
  - angelzen 5y ago
    Age is the other major risk factor. The 1900 age pyramid is completely different than 2000 age pyramid. Within the biologically active sector of the population (persons with biological children in their future, aka children and young adults, or primary caregivers of such persons, aka mothers and fathers of minors), 1918 pandemic was way worse than covid. https://www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/055 https://www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/055
    - ttyprintk 5y ago
      We’re starting to see the stats change for the delta variant. The article shows incidents of fatal infections now spiking for the 25-34 bracket. Edit: not claiming qualitative differences in the illness, that’s not what the article is about.
      - angelzen 5y ago
        ... we are not ... but there are nightmare scenarios ... some human induced ... pray they never come true ... This is media fear porn. Take a minuscule number. Can't fear monger the number itself. But look, it's 50% larger than it was during the last year's spike. The headlines write themselves: RECORD NUMBER OF YOUNG PEOPLE DIED DURING THE DELTA SURGE. JOE, 31, DIED OF COVID PS. The delta spike appears to be over in the South. I bet you never saw that one on the front page of NYT. PS2. Just noticed the funny choice of words. NYT prefers 'surge'. I prefer 'spike'. Because the data we have so far indicates that state-level 'spikes' are short lived, about 3 months, and then numbers rapidly decline. PS3. UK data. Two large spikes in spring 2020 and winter 2021. Then a relatively small spike corresponding to delta, apparently receding. Presumably the vaccine program worked quite well. Can we please stop fearmongering 'delta', as if it is the end of humanity? https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths

A very popular covid comorbodity is obesity and diabetes, which are extremely common conditions in the US. It would be interesting to split those death rates statistics by those conditions as well ( and not just age group). It may help understand the epidemic, and encourage vulnerable people to get vaccinated. But also maybe focus the public's attention on the atrocious food habits most americans are living with.

outime 5y ago
This is going to sound cynical but what you suggest doesn’t make money so there’ll never be such campaign in US unless there’s a way to make more money out of it compared to the current state of things - which is very difficult. The entire health care industry and policies in US are atrocious.
- TheFreim 5y ago
  I wonder if any data exists that would indicate how much money the Healthcare industry would lose if the obesity rate dropped by X percent. Would be an interesting thing to look at.
  - pbaka 5y ago
    It's not just the healthcare industry. You also have to factor in competing industrial lobbying interest who'd lose money (or at least need to fundamentaly retool and reorganise): agriculture, processed foods, retail food distribution, chemicals, etc.
CodeGlitch 5y ago
Yes, also see the UK where we also suffer similar levels of obesity, and have seen high numbers of covid deaths as a result. However we're not allowed to talk about it due to "body shaming", even though the ones who are obese suffer throughout their lives.

NiekvdMaas 5y ago

What's interesting is that this number matches very closely with the recorded excess mortality: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-excess-deaths-covid?country=~USA https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-excess-deaths-... - for those who think the COVID-19 death numbers are artificially blown up.

ekianjo 5y ago
the mortality has largely slowed down after the vaccines were introduced... as shown by this graph.
- guilhas 5y ago
  Or, since it's all causes, it might show that covid measures like lockdowns, and others, actually killed more people instead of saving
  - thebruce87m 5y ago
    There are some countries that locked down that show no excess mortality: https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/ https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps/ so at least we can say not all lockdowns result in mass casualties. A “lockdown sceptic” may argue that not all lockdowns are the same of course.

ekianjo 5y ago

> The new and alarming surge of deaths this summer means that the coronavirus pandemic has become the deadliest in American history, overtaking the toll from the influenza pandemic of 1918 and 1919, which killed about 675,000 people. Typically you calculate deaths at the percentage of the population if you are seriously trying to make a point. It's not like the population of 100 years ago was remotely the same as now. High journalism again, NYT.

TheFreim 5y ago
Do you know how this current event compares in terms of percentage of population deaths? Would be hard because I think you'd have to control for health as well since it wouldn't be fair to compare current obesity rates with the past.
- angelzen 5y ago
  Age is the other major risk factor. The 1900 age pyramid is completely different than 2000 age pyramid. Within the biologically active sector of the population (persons with biological children in their future, aka children and young adults, or primary caregivers of such persons, aka mothers and fathers of minors), 1918 pandemic was way worse than covid. https://www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/055 https://www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/055
  - ttyprintk 5y ago
    We’re starting to see the stats change for the delta variant. The article shows incidents of fatal infections now spiking for the 25-34 bracket. Edit: not claiming qualitative differences in the illness, that’s not what the article is about.
    - angelzen 5y ago
      ... we are not ... but there are nightmare scenarios ... some human induced ... pray they never come true ... This is media fear porn. Take a minuscule number. Can't fear monger the number itself. But look, it's 50% larger than it was during the last year's spike. The headlines write themselves: RECORD NUMBER OF YOUNG PEOPLE DIED DURING THE DELTA SURGE. JOE, 31, DIED OF COVID PS. The delta spike appears to be over in the South. I bet you never saw that one on the front page of NYT. PS2. Just noticed the funny choice of words. NYT prefers 'surge'. I prefer 'spike'. Because the data we have so far indicates that state-level 'spikes' are short lived, about 3 months, and then numbers rapidly decline. PS3. UK data. Two large spikes in spring 2020 and winter 2021. Then a relatively small spike corresponding to delta, apparently receding. Presumably the vaccine program worked quite well. Can we please stop fearmongering 'delta', as if it is the end of humanity? https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths