* Covid cases in the US have tripled over the past two weeks, up to over 768,000 per day, as the nation continues to suffer record surge
* There were 1.486M new cases Monday, the highest single day figure of the pandemic. Hospitalizations in the US also peaked
* Deaths have not followed the same trend, though, only increasing 11% as the CDC chief saying almost all are among people with four or more co-morbidities
* On average, 146,000 Americans are hospitalized with Covid every day, though many people are likely just testing positive when going in for other treatment
* Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says the virus will likely be around for the next decade, but his company's booster shots will be able to 'control' the pandemic
* WHO officials warn that it is too early to believe the virus will become endemic yet, though, as it is spreading and evolving at an unpredictable rate
* The variant is already showing signs of burning out in England and Denmark, though, a positive sign for the US going forward
* One study found Omicron could have a lower death rate than the yearly flu
As many as 40 percent of Americans could be infected with COVID-19 during the Omicron variant-fueled surge hitting the US, an expert says, as the nation logs a record 1.4 million infections in a single day.
However, deaths caused by the variant remain low and are not growing at anywhere near the same rate as cases. Signs from the UK also show the variant could burn out in the near future.
Dr Scott Gottlieb, former chief of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), told CNBC's Squawk Box on Tuesday that the variant is infecting around one percent of Americans every day, and around ten percent of the population is actively infected at any given point.
Read more ....
Update #1: Update #1: U.S. breaks record with more than 145,000 covid-19 hospitalizations (Washington Post)
Update #2: Covid-19 hospitalizations reach record high, HHS data shows (CNN)
WNU Editor: We will never know what the "real" numbers are .... True number of Covid deaths in the US probably undercounted, experts say (The Guardian).
3 comments:
Maybe the infected this time will have immunity to a degree that prevents such a pandemic from repeating soon.
Based upon how they are counting this I simply don't envision a way that deaths from COVID can possibly be undercounted. 1.) When people get sick, they seek medical help. We have been very efficient from the start at testing people. Testing for COVID is among the first things done. Since much this has been done with overly sensitive PCR tests, those who got "tested" are more likely to be listed as positive than should be. Essentially at step 1 cases are going to be wildly over-stated. 2.) When someone dies, there will generally be an autopsy which will include a COVID test as the centerpiece of the autopsy with yet another PCR test. Positive results are going to be overstated yet again at step 2. 3.) Among those who got sick and/or died, dying with COVID is counted as dying of COVID in far to many cases. Essentially reported deaths and reported cases are very badly overstated. 4.) There may be a vast ocean of people who got the virus, never showed symptoms, and never got tested.
Essentially due to the factors listed above it is certainly possible perhaps even probable that total cases are understated, however, due to the nature of our health care system combined with the emphasis placed on tracking down cases of this disease and deaths to the point of overstated them due to both an overly sensitive PCR test and a political environment that supports this deaths are going to be vastly overstated.
Essentially the sick virtually always seek medical help and those who die are virtually always autopsied. Combine this with testing measures that are overly sensitive and financial and political incentives to overstate cases and deaths from this deaths are no doubt overstated. I think it is accurate to say we will never know the exactly how much deaths have been overstated by.
My take would be that the number of cases is undercounted, even with the crazy amount of testing, because the asymptomatic causes are not possible to accurately measure and many will go uncounted. As to the covid deaths, it seems obvious that they are overcomunted substantially since hospitals combine "with" and 'from" when it comes to cases. Latest figures from New York and New Jersey suggest that only about 60% of the "covid deaths" are "from" covid.
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