this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
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The US government may be done with Covid, but recent data shows an alarming number of Americans are still dying from the respiratory disease

Nearly four years into the pandemic, hundreds of Americans are still dying every day from Covid, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The virus is responsible for around 1,000 deaths and 15,000 hospitalisations each week, CDC Director Mandy Cohen said during a media briefing on 2 December.

Death rates briefly dipped below 500 per week in July, the lowest rates since the pandemic began, before steadily increasing to as high as 1,400 in September.

The latest CDC data shows emergency doctor visits and hospitalisations spiked by 10 per cent over one week in mid-November, the first major increase in the virus’s spread for several months.

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[–] scytale@lemm.ee 48 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Get your updated boosters folks.

[–] F_Haxhausen@lemmy.world 30 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I didn’t go into a building that was not my home for the first two years.

I haven’t stopped masking since the beginning in March 2020. And I am on my fifth booster.

And I have managed to avoid getting covid.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Have you been doing regular antibody tests? Its possible you have had asymptomatic COVID at some point in the past.

Regardless, I'm very happy you've been spare the experience of the symptoms.

[–] F_Haxhausen@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

I suppose I left out part of the story.

I am immune-compromised. I have a suppressed immune system, a weak immune system.

If I got covid, it would be bad. Very bad. I would know. As my doctor said - it isn’t easier for me to catch things, but if I do catch them it is much worse.

I have not taken any tests. But then, I haven’t had a fever in three years either.

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 4 points 10 months ago

Vaccines make you antibody positive. That's kinda the point lol

[–] Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca 0 points 10 months ago

Get right on that.

[–] kerrigan778@lemmy.world 28 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I am not at all suggesting to not take Covid seriously, please get your shots and mask up in confined or crowded spaces and on transit and especially when not feeling well and unable to stay home. However it's worth giving perspective that that puts its death toll now at similar to an unusually bad flu year, or about twice as bad as a typical flu year. Covid is no longer, thankfully, a leading cause of death and it now pales in comparison to deaths caused by accidents, or by obesity, or smoking. In 2021 for example, Covid deaths were at least 8 times higher than they are now.

Most telling, given how difficult to track Covid adjacent deaths or to be certain of what caused every death, excess deaths has returned to prepandemic levels, meaning the overall death rate in the US is now within the margin of historical norms.

[–] starelfsc2@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago

Something to note is deaths don't tell the whole story, covid has many somewhat common long-term side effects such as exhaustion and respiratory issues, which can last years after infection. Long covid (basically a mix of these and many more symptoms) also affects about 1/4 people who get covid, though this is trending downward.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I was worried about catching covid when out in public, but now I've gone back to just worrying about being shot.

[–] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

With COVID killing so many people, Flu can take the year off. That's how that works, right?

[–] doublejay1999@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

That pure blood not working out so well.

[–] msbellows@c.im 4 points 10 months ago

@MicroWave That's more deaths from COVID per week than from car crashes.