Not “Just the Flu”
A grim reminder.
The estimated death toll from Covid-19 in the United States for the month of November was ~36,000.
The total estimated deaths in the US all of last year from flu was 22,000, according to the CDC.
Worldometers put the death tally to date at 287,894. This covers, more or less, a ten month span, making the monthly average of death at ~28,789.
2019’s 22,000 flu deaths in on the lower side of recent years. But even if we take the 61,000 from 2017, that’s roughly two months of Covid deaths this year.
This is just a regular reminder of what I have been saying since at least April: this is not just the flu (and I know most readers here know that know, but clearly this is still not universally accepted).
The depressing thing is that when I wrote the linked post in mid-April, the death toll, which seemed dramatic at the time, was 25,733. We are now over 10 times that level and accelerating the daily rates in truly horrific proportions.
Worldometers puts the 7-day rolling average of deaths at 2,222 as of this writing.
Via CBS: COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in the U.S. this week, report says.
COVID-19 was ranked as the leading cause of death in the U.S. this week, with 11,820, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. That’s more than the number of Americans who died from ischemic heart disease (10,724), tracheal, bronchus and lung cancer (3,965), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (3,766).
Where I live, the public health department hasn’t updated the number of hospitalizations from Covid-19 for about 3 or 4 weeks, when the total was 8. The reason given is that the number of new cases, 346 for the last recorded 2-week interval ending on November 30, has risen so much that they cannot report the number. Hmmmmm… đ
ETA: We stand at 766 current active cases after having declared 123 people cured on Friday 11/5. (And we’re an exurban area of 110,000 pop.)
The number I want to find out is: how many people need to die of COVID-19 before a majority of Republicans and other Trump ass-kissers will take it seriously?
I’d be content not knowing, if the vaccines work as intended and the pandemic ends sometimes in the summer of 2021. But it seems to be awfully big.
@Kathy:
On Jan 20. It’ll be Biden’s fault and he will have screwed up the wonderful work of the Former Reality Show Host.
@Sleeping Dog:
Naturally.
Worse yet, many cases acquired during the Christmas and New Years holidays won’t manifest until close to Biden’s inauguration, including many deaths. He’ll be directly blamed for those.
@Kathy: “The number I want to find out is: how many people need to die of COVID-19 before a majority of Republicans and other Trump ass-kissers will take it seriously?”
Seconding Sleeping Dog, here – any number of deaths, after Biden takes office, will be a HUGE DEMONOKRAT DISASTER!!!
It’s not like the flu.
Trust me on this one.
My symptoms lasted a month and were hellish, in reading other accounts I got off lucky.
0 out 5 stars. Would not recommend. Just off the persistent big-bone body aches alone forgoing everything else.
Let’s put that monthly death rate in greater context: it’s happening despite the fact that we are doing everything in our power to stop its spread, and treat it when it has spread.
@Franklin:
Except we aren’t, right?
@Kathy: I don’t suppose this will be a satisfying answer, but….
@Steven L. Taylor:
@Franklin:
My Governor actively ignored Covid until it hit crisis level.
Noem and De Santis get more coverage, but Reynolds is as bad. She actively fought to prevent local governments from establishing and enforcing strictures when she herself did nothing. Fiddled while Rome burned.
Up for election in 2022. I hope folks remember her actions and inaction.
@de stijl:
“I hope folks remember her actions and inaction.”
I hope people laugh in her face when she proclaims herself to be pro-life, given how many deaths could have been prevented had she taken COVID seriously.
@de stijl: Your state really needs to advertise to get people to take Covid-19 vaccinations?YASF đ
@Steven L. Taylor: I *almost* qualified the “we” as most healthcare experts and workers and much of the general population.
Still, we’re doing far more than we have ever done to prevent the flu. Masks, distancing, working-from-home. The only exception is a vaccine we don’t have access to yet.
@Franklin: I see your point–I figured I was missing something.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Ya, man. I know. It sucks.
Btw, if you want state level action always hit up your state representative and senator first.
You might get a bounce-back form reply asking you confirm your address. It’s cool. Those folks get a shit-ton of bot driven nonsense e-mails. Bear thru it.
It makes good sense to know who represents you from alderman and up the ladder. Keep a list. Update it.
@Barry:
Yes, but will they decide now it’s a good idea to get people to wear masks, keep social distance, limit gatherings, limit capacity at churches, etc.?
Trump didn’t mind blaming Obama because his government never developed a test for a virus that didn’t exist, or for leaving “the cupboard bare” which was still bare after three years of trumpy rule.
But he never took any health measures seriously, unless they were bogus cures.
And now we’re seeing reports that Giuliani has covid.
That didn’t work to get rid of Joni Ernst so it probably won’t work to get rid of Reynolds…
@An Interested Party: I was actually really surprised Ernst wasnât shown the door after the âprice of soybeansâ incident.
@An Interested Party:
Gotta try anyway.