Covid deaths skew older, reviving questions about 'acceptable loss'
The pandemic has become a plague of the elderly, with nearly 9 out of 10 deaths in people 65 or olderPresident Biden may have declared the coronavirus pandemic over, but from John Feltons view as the Yellowstone County health officer in Billings, Mont., its not over, just different.
Now, more than ever, it is a plague of the elderly.
In October, Feltons team logged six deaths due to the virus, many of them among vaccinated people. Their ages: 80s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 90s. They included Betty Witzel, 88, described by her family as a tomboy who carried snakes in her pocket as a child and grew up to be a teacher, mother of four, grandmother of nine and great-grandmother of five. And there was Nadine Alice Stark, 85, a ranch owner who planted sugar beets and corn.
Yellowstone County made the decision early in the crisis to recognize each death individually, and Felton said that is as important as ever to acknowledge the unrelenting toll on a still-vulnerable older generation, while most everyone else has moved on.
I think about someones grandfather the plays they wouldnt watch, the games on the football field they wouldnt see, he said.
More than 300 people are still dying each day on average from covid-19, most of them 65 or older, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While thats much lower than the 2,000 daily toll at the peak of the delta wave, it is still roughly two to three times the rate at which people die of the flu renewing debate about what is an acceptable loss.
https://wapo.st/3UfLH9w
Blues Heron
(5,898 posts)We had a death rate of 2700/day in Jan 2022 and were over 3400/day in Jan 2021
TheBlackAdder
(28,070 posts).
Since it's now a Biden administration, all of a sudden it's a concern.
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Blues Heron
(5,898 posts)just seems weird to compare to the third highest peak like that instead of the highest peak. IE what they should have said was things now arent as bad as they were at the HEIGHT of the pandemic when we were averaging over 3400deaths per day.
Weird sleight of hand to say we arent as bad as Delta which was over 2000 deaths/day it implies that was the worst of it, when it was worse in two other waves. Maybe there is a reason to pick Delta that Im missing?.
Pobeka
(4,999 posts)You could drop the masks after a few weeks, and reinstate them for one week at a time as numbers increase a little.
But, ya know, America, the right to kill other Americans to escape the smallest personal inconvenience is the foremost priority.
Skittles
(152,963 posts)alas, the overwhelming majority just doesn't give a shit about others, it is truly disturbing
Igel
(35,191 posts)it's also true that influenza skews older.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1127698/influenza-us-deaths-by-age-group/
There are reasons for this, often physiological and not SES.