The surprising link between Covid-19 deaths and ... internet access

[Person of Interest]

The case for treating internet access as a health necessity.

https://www.vox.com/22979086/covid-pandemic-deaths-mortality-broadband-internet-access?utm_source=pocket_mylist

[LisaM]

1. Actually not surprising when you think of it.

With the death of print news, you almost need the internet (or at least cable or satellite or a smart TV) to get news at all. Or NPR, I suppose.

[USALiberal]

2. Most posters post a paragraph or two......

Two years into the pandemic, researchers are still trying to understand what makes some people more likely than others to die from Covid-19. Although we know some of the risk factors — like age and underlying disease — others are less obvious. Identifying them could ease our current pain, protect communities from future epidemics, and point us toward some of the societal fractures we should most urgently try to mend.

One of the more surprising answers to this question is one that appears to have a relatively straightforward solution: internet access.

This March, researchers at the University of Chicago published a study in the journal JAMA Network Open that showed one of the factors most consistently associated with a high risk of death due to Covid-19 in the US was the lack of internet access, whether broadband, dial-up, or cellular. This was regardless of other demographic risk factors like socioeconomic status, education, age, disability, rent burden, health insurance coverage, or immigration status.

[littlemissmartypants]

3. Thanks for this.

The CovidActNow.com at https://www.covidactnow.org/?s=30581916 has a category of assessment called Vulnerabilities which consists of ...

Health system challenges
Hospital bed availability, access to pharmacies, and the amount of healthcare spending per capita within a region, among other factors, can indicate the limited capacity of healthcare systems to respond to COVID.

Unemployment & low income
Financial insecurity, lack of access to health care, or the inability to work remotely or with protections and benefits increases vulnerability to severe COVID outcomes.

Minorities & non-English speakers
Language barriers can restrict access to public health messaging and resources. Data on COVID has demonstrated that racial and ethnic minorities are often at the highest risk of poor medical outcomes.

Population density
Higher population density has been demonstrated to increase the risk of quick viral spread and adverse health outcomes.

Older age & health issues
High-risk groups (per CDC guidelines) such as elderly adults or people with pre-existing conditions have experienced more severe health outcomes throughout the pandemic.

Housing and transport challenges
Crowded housing, housing insecurity, access to indoor plumbing and limited transit options make it more difficult to avoid COVID exposure.

Crowded living & working areas
Communities with higher vulnerability have pre-existing economic, social, and physical conditions that may make it hard to respond to and recover from a COVID outbreak.

The rationale for this is stated as ...

"Communities with higher vulnerability have pre-existing economic, social, and physical conditions that may make it hard to respond to and recover from a COVID outbreak."

This research drills that down and "lack of internet access" would be an interesting metric to add based on the University of Chicago research.

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