Covid. Remember Covid? Looking at yesterday's data on

[AllyCat]

Worldometers, the US has far fewer cases than many other countries. And yet the number of deaths here far outpaced other nations. Many are still dying. I cannot help but wonder if this is a result of lack of access to our overly expensive healthcare system.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

[Phoenix61]

1. I would say yes, indirectly.

Too many chronic conditions not caught early or well managed after they are identified.

[Raftergirl]

22. Exactly.

Comorbitities- especially obesity and diabetes.

Many comorbitities can be linked to poor health care system for many demographics.

[Walleye]

2. A lot of morons won't get vaccinated.

[nature-lover]

3. Also, home testing make the case numbers low. When done by a doc or pharmacy, they were reported.

I am sure that there are many factors. Access to healthcare is definitely one.

[mucifer]

6. BUT, at home testing isn't making hospitalization numbers low and that's important

[nature-lover]

8. That's true. Hospitalizations and deaths are our only reliable numbers.

[NCDem47]

11. And who knows how those numbers are being reported.

I don't trust any reporting coming out of Texas or Florida - two of our most populous states. Unless hospitals report COVID-related deaths directly to Federal govt. bypassing state collection.

Agree. Deaths are really our best indicator of COVID impact at this point as we're all leraning to live with COVID in the populace with people being asympomatic or symtomatic and getting through it.

[Chainfire]

4. We have a third world medical system for those who don't have access to insurance.

That is roughly 28 million people. I think that that most likely explains the excess deaths. If you don't have insurance, you avoid healthcare until you are critical because behind the minimal care (stabilize and rush out the door) you will get comes the collections man to hound you until death do you part.

[Crunchy Frog]

5. Deaths are always a lagging indicator.

The people dying now are the ones who got sick weeks or months ago.

[JoanofArgh]

7. Maybe lower vaccination rates here is a cause , at least in some cases.

[wiggs]

9. Yes. And yes home testing hides cases. but also, deaths lag cases so comparison

depends on timing of surges and cases. A snap shot of numbers needs more context. And remember, reported cases are often from infections 1 or 2 weeks ago. As Fauci has always said...in a pandemic we are always chasing understanding of the numbers, always behind.

[AllyCat]

10. I know health reporters say the death lag is about 2-3 weeks.

We seem to be long past that. I hope deaths start to go down. It is good that hospitalizations are decreasing.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. Can Be As Much As A Month

They've adopted a modicum of newer treatments, and if they don't work to heal, the lag gets longer.
In the earliest days, the lag was 10-14 days. Then, it was 2-3 weeks.
It's likely that it's closer to a month now.
BTW: Hospitalization is down in Illinois, & icu bed availability is nearly back to what hospitals set as their ideal usage. (25-30% beds available.)

[Zeitghost]

17. Deaths started to go down

3 weeks ago. The omicron death wave peaked the first week of February, 3 weeks after cases peaked in mid January.

[Johnny2X2X]

12. Deaths lag several weeks

We hit peak cases in early January, deaths peaked a few weeks later.

But people have pointed out a few things, the at home tests don't require reporting, so the number if cases is widely under what there really were. Many countries urge their citizens to report test results and because many countries have more responsible citizens they get a high % of people reporting.

I think our girth here in the US is also a factor, we're one of the most overweight major countries.

But I think the biggest factor is MAGAts. They are less likely to be vaccinated, and then when they get sick they are more likely to order some BS from the internet to treat Covid, and they're also more likely to be in denial and not go to the hospital for help until it's too late. The people dying right now are almost all dying because of choices they've made.

[Claustrum]

13. Deaths have always lag behind infections since the beginning of COVID.

It takes a while for some serious cases to lead to death. I think we will see the death numbers come down in a few weeks.

[AllyCat]

18. I hope so. Wearing a mask until I see that and that cases dont

Spike again.

[Claustrum]

20. Me too. Let's hope the end of COVID is near and no new serious variants will pop up.

I am still doing things for prevention just like when COVID is at it's worst and we didn't have vaccine. I try to stay home as much as I can unless it's for necessity. It will be a while before I can get comfortable attending events that's crowded or indoor for a long period of time.

[Zeitghost]

14. Far fewer cases?

The link you posted shows we have the most reported cases...

[AllyCat]

16. No, Germany had the most yesterday.

Russia, France also higher than us. I think when I try to post from worldometers it reverts to current day totals. Sorry for the confusion.

On edit: yeah, I just checked. It defaulted to today. If you click “yesterday” at the top, you see that Japan, South Korea, and a few other countries had more cases than us. But we have 5-6 times as many deaths.

[Midnight Writer]

19. I notice rural counties have higher Covid death rates.

Folks "out here" have fewer health care facilities, less access to modern treatments, and often opt for self-care over professional help.

Some people live 50 miles or more from the nearest hospitals, and local clinics tend to be poorly staffed and equipped.

There is simply less money to be made in rural healthcare, and that's what counts in profit-driven healthcare.

[AllyCat]

21. Our profit healthcare is terrible. We need to expand access to rural facilities and educate more

Providers so we have the staff.

[Bucky]

23. 8000 global deaths daily (current average)

It feels funny saying that's a vast improvement, but it is.

[struggle4progress]

24. We're still around 2000 deaths/day: that's about 730K/year

It's not great news yet

[AllyCat]

26. The US is about a quarter of the world's deaths right now.

Awful.

[Bucky]

25. Interesting. The top 20 countries for "New Cases" (or new cases being reported)

including number and percentage of total global new cases - NOT adjusted for national per capita.

1 Germany 150,565 ( 2.5 %)
2 S. Korea 138,993 ( 2.3 %)
3 Vietnam 98,762 ( 1.6 %)
4 Russia 97,333 ( 1.6 %)
5 France 79,794 ( 1.3 %)
6 Turkey 59,885 ( 1.0 %)
7 Japan 55,243 ( 0.9 %)
8 Italy 46,631 ( 0.8 %)
9 USA 41,899 ( 0.7 %)
10 Netherlands 36,488 ( 0.6 %)
11 Hong Kong 32,597 ( 0.5 %)
12 Malaysia 25,854 ( 0.4 %)
13 Australia 25,017 ( 0.4 %)
14 Austria 24,788 ( 0.4 %)
15 Indonesia 24,728 ( 0.4 %)
16 UK 24,158 ( 0.4 %)
17 Singapore 24,080 ( 0.4 %)
18 Brazil 23,545 ( 0.4 %)
19 Switzerland 23,249 ( 0.4 %)
20 Thailand 20,420 ( 0.3 %)

Interestingly, Mexico and Brazil, which had been on track to be real nightmare scenarios, are down to #54 and #18 respectively.

[IronLionZion]

27. Comorbidities, less vaccination, and cost of hospital care

a lot of hospitals were full of COVID patients recently in many parts of America and had to turn away patients. And hospital care is quite expensive even with insurance.

For much of the pandemic, people have avoided treatment for other medical problems. Many times their conditions got worse without treatment.