Another wave of death

[brooklynite]

Source: Axios

Omicron infections are trending down nationally, but the number of deaths is as high now as it was during the summer's Delta wave.

Why it matters: Preventing death is the ultimate goal, and thousands of Americans continue to die from this coronavirus every day even though vaccines have been available to the public for roughly a year.

By the numbers: More than 2,000 people are dying from COVID every day right now, and that number has been rising for the past week, according to the latest seven-day rolling averages.

Roughly three out of four deaths are people who are 65 or older, according to the CDC.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/covid-omicron-wave-of-death-0e0e202b-5e45-4b51-a29c-1a28cd56d83c.html

[PJMcK]

1. A curious side issue

With such a high death rate, I wonder if our country's population is diminishing slightly or if births are keeping up with the death rate.

As I typed the question, I realized I could do any easy search. Here's what I found:

https://carsey.unh.edu/publication/snapshot/2020-deaths-exceeded-births-in-record-number-of-states

Fascinating.

[IronLionZion]

3. Few people wanted to have babies during COVID

probably fewer new marriages too.

[DENVERPOPS]

16. Several young couples I have talked to

have said: Why would I want to bring an innocent child into this mess.....Covid and Political.

I thought that was interesting........Sadly, no one for certain has clue one of what is coming our way in the years and decades ahead.

I don't think our futures have ever been anywhere near this un-stable for the past few centuries, with the exception of maybe the Civil War.

I often ask: Don't the Republican Politicians and Republican Party members have children and grandchildren ?????????????

[wishstar]

22. My county Register of Deeds reported more deaths than births in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid

This is Buncombe Co. NC where in history of record keeping, births have always outpaced deaths until Covid

[IronLionZion]

2. My city is down from our highs

our numbers are moving in the correct direction. The opposite is happening in some other regions of the US.

[NurseJackie]

4. Of those who are now dying... are the majority unvaxxed?

Or is it mostly because of people's age, frailty and other underlying conditions?

[bullimiami]

5. from the article. Deaths 75% over 65. Unvaxxed 100x more likely to die than fully vaxed and boosted.

[BlueWavePsych]

6. Likely older, unvaxxed Republicans.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/20/those-least-likely-worry-about-getting-covid-republicans-have-been-those-most-likely-get-covid/

[CountAllVotes]

14. Picture tells the story

[milestogo]

7. And some people say "its only old people who are dying"

because they don't give a crap about the sick, the disabled, and the elderly.

[StarryNite]

10. Yup

[bronxiteforever]

8. A big point in the article is

Unvaccinated people are 100 times more likely to die from COVID than people who have gotten three doses of an mRNA vaccine.

[Firestorm49]

9. Did anybody notice the jam packed football stadiums this past weekend?

Silly me, but as things have gone so far, I wouldn’t doubt another sharp rise in cases in the next few weeks.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy football, but every decision that my wife and I make , and we have run the entire course without coming down with Covid 🙏 is based on how safe we feel to be out. I want the return to a normal (?) life.

[70sEraVet]

12. For me and my wife, our 'normal life' has Never involved big crowds.

No sports stadiums, large concerts, county fairs, 'rallies', ect. We have always shied away from large crowds. It doesn't mean that we're never around people, but we do seem to value our personal space (and I will go into panic mode if there's too many people and too much noise, like a busy indoor mall).

[Ace Rothstein]

21. We've had jam packed football stadiums since August.

Before that baseball stadiums were packed over the summer months. They aren't suddenly going to cause a spike 5 months later.

[TheRickles]

11. But the CDC website shows that deaths from all causes is NOT rising during the omicron surge.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm
So while Covid "cases" may be rising, there doesn't seem to be an associated rise in all-cause mortality. The CDC site also allows you to do a breakdown by state, by age range, gender, etc.

[BlueWavePsych]

13. See excess deaths above threshold as well as deaths with Covid-19 then update dashboard.

The little red crosses in chart above are excess deaths.

[TheRickles]

15. Yes, there are definitely excess deaths, but to a degree that is coming down to expected levels.

Not the omicron surge we would expect based on the huge number of cases being reported in the media, and much smaller than the surges in ACM from alpha, delta and etc. Instead, it looks like less than 5% over expected deaths from all causes at omicron's peak on Dec. 11. There's usually a 2-week lag before all the data is reported and shows up in this graph, so it may look different in a few more weeks, but I doubt it. We shall see.

[FBaggins]

19. Important to remember that there's a lag in some reporting

Those last four weeks or so on the graph frequently look as though they are dipping back to the "normal" range.

Final figures can take as much as eight weeks.

[TheRickles]

23. Yes, but with this particular graph, it's usually been 2-3 weeks to finalize, tops. We shall see....

[Marthe48]

17. Let's call the virus something else

Such as Ebola of the lungs. Something to induce the idiots to get a mask on and get vaccinated and boosted.

[roamer65]

18. Suicide by SARS.

That’s what I call the unvaxxed deaths.

[LENNY0229]

20. Vast majority are unvaxxed so OH WELL. Seems like a pretty deadly "hoax." The dumb don't learn.