{"id":13446,"date":"2022-05-15T06:26:12","date_gmt":"2022-05-15T13:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=13446"},"modified":"2022-05-16T01:57:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T08:57:41","slug":"message-of-the-day-disease-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=13446","title":{"rendered":"Message of the Day: Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

How America Lost One Million People,<\/em> The New York Times, May 13, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We let the last Issue and Message run a few days long because of the importance of one issue, while we also waited a few days for an upcoming article (now here) on another important issue.<\/p>\n

In terms of impact, the two most important issues of the past few years–and perhaps of modern times–related to the present and future with regard to their inter-relationship with all issues on the planet.<\/p>\n

We’ll be back to the issue of Ukraine, our travels related to it and the determinative factor it is now, is going to be in future one way or another, and what it represents as a convergence of virtually all the great issues facing the planet.<\/p>\n

The other issue\u00a0is the pandemic, which has changed everything and nothing, which almost changed everything in a positive transformative way related to all the great issues on the planet, then became part of a great regression, and when one is able to see through the hallucinatory fog caused in part by a shared planetary experience in an age of communication like no other, will become more obvious in its ongoing peril and opportunity.<\/p>\n

That’s the issue of the week. A million American dead officially (many more in reality), 15 million according to WHO globally as the real cost. Again, probably more, and counting.<\/p>\n

A small percentage of the globe are vaccinated in our have and have-not barbarity, and by that measure alone, the pandemic is far from done with us.<\/p>\n

The New York Times has focused on the American mark this week.<\/p>\n

Here it is:<\/p>\n

“How America Lost One Million People”<\/a><\/p>\n

By Jeremy White, Amy Harmon, Danielle Ivory, Lauren Leatherby,<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Albert Sun and Sarah Almukhtar, The New York Times,<\/span>May 13, 2022<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\u00a0. . .<\/strong><\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

At the start of the pandemic, few understood how high the toll might climb.<\/p>\n

Each dot here represents one person who has died of Covid in the United States.<\/p>\n

They were mothers and fathers. Sisters and brothers. Daughters and sons.<\/p>\n

Now, nearly one million people have died. It did not have to be this way.<\/p>\n

THE MAGNITUDE OF THE<\/strong> country\u2019s loss is nearly impossible to grasp.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

More Americans have died of Covid-19 than in two decades of car crashes or on battlefields in all of the country\u2019s wars combined.<\/p>\n

Experts say deaths were all but inevitable from a new virus of such severity and transmissibility. Yet, one million dead is a stunning toll, even for a country the size of the United States, and the true number is almost certainly higher because of undercounting.<\/p>\n

It is the result of many factors, including elected officials who played down the threat posed by the coronavirus and resisted safety measures; a decentralized, overburdened health care system that struggled with testing, tracing and treatment; and lower vaccination and booster rates than other rich countries, partly the result of widespread mistrust and resistance fanned by right-wing media and politicians.<\/p>\n

The virus did not claim lives evenly, or randomly. The New York Times analyzed 25 months of data on deaths during the pandemic and found that some demographic groups, occupations and communities were far more vulnerable than others. A significant proportion of the nation\u2019s oldest residents died, making up about three-quarters of the total deaths. And among younger adults across the nation, Black and Hispanic people died at much higher rates than white people.<\/p>\n

Understanding the toll \u2014 who makes up the one million and how the country failed them \u2014 is essential as the pandemic continues. More than 300 people are still dying of Covid every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a country with the best doctors in the world, we got a vaccine in an astoundingly short period of time, and yet we\u2019ve had so many deaths,\u201d said Mary T. Bassett, the health commissioner for New York State.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really should be a moment for us all to reflect on what sort of society we want to have,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
April 2020<\/div>\n
Jan. 2021<\/div>\n
April 2022<\/div>\n
First wave<\/div>\n
Winter wave<\/div>\n
Delta<\/div>\n
Omicron<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

The coronavirus arrived in the United States by early 2020, setting off wave after wave of infection and death in the months that followed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

An alarming peak that first spring was followed by an even deadlier wave that winter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

More Americans died then than in any other period of the pandemic, just as vaccines were arriving and offering hope that it might soon be over.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But new variants emerged: Delta in the summer of 2021, followed by Omicron, which spread so widely that deaths surged again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

What began as a crisis in cities spread to rural areas and back again, until the path of the virus traced the full geography of the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

The Chaotic Beginning<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think any of us understood the scale of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

THE FIRST WAVE OF DEATHS<\/strong> was concentrated in the Northeast, especially New York City and its suburbs. No one knew much in those early months. Doctors were not sure how best to treat the disease. Hospitals were overwhelmed. Deaths climbed sharply.<\/p>\n

New York City was hit harder in March and April 2020 than any other city in the country has been during the pandemic. At the height of this outbreak, a New Yorker was dying of Covid almost every two minutes \u2014 nearly 800 people per day, a rate five times as high as the city\u2019s normal pace of death.<\/p>\n

Among them was Dr. Jay Galst, 69, an otherwise healthy ophthalmologist in Manhattan, who most likely contracted Covid from a patient. His widow, Joann Galst, blamed President Donald J. Trump, who sought to quell concern about the virus in early March, asserting that it would go away with rising temperatures. She also blamed federal health officials, who declined to recommend masks for the public in those earliest days.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes it give me consolation that he was doing the work that he loved?\u201d Dr. Galst asked of her husband\u2019s death<\/a>. \u201cThat he was following preventive measures that we both thought was the best he could have done at the time? Not really, since I now know, had we been honestly informed of the immense danger we were all facing in New York City, we could have and would have done more.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
April 2020<\/div>\n
Jan. 2021<\/div>\n
April 2022<\/div>\n
171,683 <\/strong>
\nNortheast
\ndeaths<\/div>\n
784,689 <\/strong>
\nAll other
\nU.S. deaths<\/div>\n
21,090 <\/strong>
\nN.Y.C. deaths<\/div>\n
62,633 <\/strong>
\nNortheast
\ndeaths<\/div>\n
42,480 <\/strong>
\nAll other
\nU.S. deaths<\/div>\n
April 2020<\/div>\n
40,240 <\/strong>
\nN.Y.C.
\ndeaths<\/div>\n
June 2020<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

About 60 percent of all deaths at the beginning of the pandemic happened in the Northeast, as the virus tore through cities and suburbs on the Eastern Seaboard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

New York City alone saw 20 percent of the nation\u2019s deaths in the first wave, despite making up just 3 percent of the U.S. population.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

This period would prove to be the region\u2019s worst by far. The rest of the country would bear the bulk of the 900,000 deaths to come.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Epidemiologists have pointed to New York\u2019s density<\/a> and its role as an international hub of commerce and tourism to explain the early spike in cases and deaths. Still, the earliest surge also took an acute toll in cities including Detroit, New Orleans and Albany, Ga.<\/p>\n

A spike in emergency room visits to New York City hospitals by people who had \u201cflu-like symptoms\u201d in early March suggested that thousands of city residents were infected.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Health workers at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York City in late March 2020.<\/span> Victor J. Blue for The New York Times<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On March 15, Mayor Bill de Blasio shuttered bars and restaurants<\/a> and announced that public schools would close<\/a>the next day. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo imposed broad restrictions on nonessential businesses on March 22. Those near-lockdown measures were most likely responsible for a more than 50 percent reduction in transmission of the virus, a Columbia University study found<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By summer, New York was garnering praise as a model of infection control. Death rates in New York City would never rise as high as they did in the early wave.<\/p>\n

But Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, a former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a former commissioner of New York City\u2019s Health Department, said he believed that restrictions came too late. More than half of the New Yorkers who died in the earliest days might have lived, he estimated, had officials put the lockdown measures in place even a week or two earlier. \u201cCases were doubling every two days, and every two days you were doubling the impact,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

New York\u2019s political leaders cited lack of direction from the federal government, inconsistent messages from public health experts and the daunting task of getting the public on board with a massive disruption of everyday life for the timing of restrictions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think any of us understood the scale of it,\u201d Dr. Mitch Katz, who runs New York City\u2019s public hospitals and participated in the de Blasio administration\u2019s meetings, told The Times<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n

Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, said a lack of tests and the Trump administration\u2019s failure to shut down international travel \u201cseeded Covid in New York for two months before our first confirmed case.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

In an interview, Mr. de Blasio said, \u201cIt is hard to say to people when no one had died and the cases are limited, \u2018We\u2019re closing down your livelihood, we don\u2019t know when it\u2019s going to come back. We don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen to your life, we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen to your family.\u2019\u201d He added, \u201cIt\u2019s not something you do lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n
\n
\n

A High Toll Among the Unvaccinated<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a lack of benefit from therapy that we know is accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

BECKY BENNETT SAID SHE<\/strong> and her father, Barrie, were like \u201cpeas in a pod,\u201d hiking, biking and shooting together in the Blackfoot, Idaho, area. But vaccines were something they could not agree on.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease, kitten, don\u2019t get the shot,\u201d she recalled him telling her. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what\u2019s in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told her that the vaccines were a government scheme to \u201ctest her compliance,\u201d citing YouTube videos.<\/p>\n

Even after Mr. Bennett, 72, contracted Covid in December last year and was struggling to breathe, his daughter said he was unwilling to promise her that he would get a shot if he recovered.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Becky Bennett, left, and her sister Celestia Hadley tried to persuade their father to get vaccinated.<\/span> Lindsay D\u2019Addato for The New York Times<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Mr. Bennett, who was athletic and in good health, was eventually put on a ventilator in an intensive care unit. He died in January.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Among wealthy countries, the United States has been notably unsuccessful at persuading residents to get fully vaccinated and boosted. Today, about a third of people across the United States have not been fully vaccinated, and some 70 percent of the population has not received a booster. (By contrast, 17 percent of people in Canada have not been fully vaccinated, and 46 percent have not had boosters.)<\/p>\n

Nearly half of the deaths from Covid in the United States occurred after vaccines were made widely available. The failure to vaccinate, epidemiologists say, contributed to hundreds of thousands of deaths. During the Omicron wave in December 2021 and January 2022, for instance, the Covid death rate in the United States was higher than<\/a> in Germany, France, Britain or Canada, which had each fully vaccinated and boosted larger shares of their populations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
April 2020<\/div>\n
April 2022<\/div>\n
April 19, 2021
\nAll adults eligible for vaccination<\/div>\n
567,314 <\/strong>
\ndeaths before universal
\nvaccine eligibility<\/div>\n
429,298 <\/strong>
\ndeaths after
\nuniversal eligibility<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

More than 429,000 people have died of Covid since all adults in the United States became eligible for vaccination in April 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

A majority of them were unvaccinated, but as the virus has continued to spread, it has killed thousands of vaccinated people, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just sobering that in a country with remarkable resources like ours that we are seeing deaths like this,\u201d said Dr. Lisa Cooper, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity. \u201cAnd we\u2019re seeing a lack of benefit from therapy that we know is accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public health experts say the government failed to do enough to help the public understand how effective the vaccines are, or to combat misinformation and conspiracy theories by some right-wing media and politicians.<\/p>\n

The vaccines have been shown to be largely effective at preventing severe disease and death. But Debra Furr-Holden, an epidemiologist at Michigan State University and the incoming dean of New York University\u2019s school of global public health, said that deaths among vaccinated people had not been explained well and had exacerbated fears surrounding the vaccine and distrust of the government.<\/p>\n

The C.D.C. has received data on deaths by vaccination status from only about half of the states, so it is impossible to know exactly how many vaccinated people are among the million who have died. But at least 50,000 vaccinated people, many of them older or without booster shots, were among the deaths reported since late April 2021, when vaccines became widely available.<\/p>\n

Still, vaccinated people have had a much lower death rate \u2014 unvaccinated people have been at least nine times as likely to die since April 2021.<\/p>\n

\n

Covid-19 death rates by vaccination status<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

20 deaths<\/p>\n

per 100,000 people<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Unvaccinated<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

10<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The death rate for unvaccinated people has been at least nine times that of vaccinated people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Vaccinated<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

April 2021<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

July<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Oct.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Jan. 2022<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Note: Data is weekly. | Source: C.D.C.<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In recent months, states have scaled back on vaccination campaigns and incentives, and also dropped masking requirements and other mitigation measures that help protect the unvaccinated and other vulnerable people.<\/p>\n

Dr. Furr-Holden said the rush to get close to a prepandemic normal \u2014 to put people back in restaurants, stadiums and offices \u2014 had overshadowed more time-consuming efforts to persuade people who were still unsure about shots. And she worried that government-ordered employer vaccine mandates<\/a> drove some people away from the vaccines.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of blaming, shaming and trying to ostracize those people, it would be better to do the work to try to remedy their concerns,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n
\n
\n

Staggering Losses of Older Americans<\/p>\n

\u201cThe product of policies and public health failings, and just not caring.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

LIKE MANY IN HER AGE<\/strong> group, Germaine St. John, 87, of Laramie, Wyo., counts several friends lost to Covid. One had moved to California. One had lived on the outskirts of Laramie. Another had had a second shot. She has spotted the obituaries of other acquaintances, too, in the local newspaper, The Laramie Boomerang.<\/p>\n

In her 82 years as a Laramie resident she has raised a son, started a senior community theater group, enjoyed a career at the local bank, found common cause with fellow political conservatives and, in the early 1980s, served as mayor. But well before the pandemic, she said, she had begun to feel sidelined because of her age. And the way some younger neighbors have declined to wear masks or refrain from large gatherings when cases were on the rise seemed to diminish the lives of those most vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis idea of \u2018we\u2019re going to die anyway,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cThat is awful to say about any age group.\u201d<\/p>\n

To protect herself, Ms. St. John, a widow, has kept mostly to herself, enduring bouts of extreme loneliness. She has found solace, she said, in an online community of older adults who share stories and take fitness classes. But if Covid fades, she plans to start getting out more.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Germaine St. John lives in a quiet senior housing community not far from the University of Wyoming campus.<\/span> Matthew Defeo for The New York Times<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the last trimester of life, I sometimes say,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m going to do what I can to fulfill my commitments to my son, my friends, my community.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
219,603 deaths
\nAmong those 85 and older<\/div>\n
228,970 deaths
\nAges 75 to 84<\/div>\n
208,926 deaths
\nAges 65 to 74<\/div>\n
232,465 deaths
\nAges 64 and under<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Three-quarters of those who have died of Covid have been 65 or older \u2014 1 percent of all people in this age group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

And the pandemic has been especially deadly for the oldest. Covid has killed more than 3 percent of the entire U.S. population 85 and older.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Older people tend to have weaker organ function and immune systems, leaving them more vulnerable to disease and less likely to respond to vaccines. Indeed, age has sometimes been a bigger risk factor than vaccine status during the pandemic. People 80 and older who had gotten shots were almost twice as likely to die at the height of the Omicron wave as those in their 50s or early 60s who had not, according to C.D.C. data.<\/p>\n

But public health experts said the reluctance of others to adapt their behavior was a contributing factor to the large number of deaths among older people over the course of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of what has effectively been a slaughter has been the product of policies and public health failings, and just not caring,\u201d said Dr. Louise Aronson, a geriatrician at the University of California, San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\n

Covid-19 death rates by age<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

500<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

1,000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

1,500<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2,000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2,500<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

3,000 deaths per<\/p>\n

100,000 people<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

250<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Under<\/p>\n

25<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Age<\/p>\n

25<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Older people have died at far higher rates than young people. For those under 25, the virus has been less lethal than traffic accidents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

30<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

35<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

40<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

45<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Rates have more than doubled with every 10 years of age.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

50<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

55<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

60<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

65<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

For those 65 and older<\/span>, Covid has been the third leading cause of death, after cancer and heart disease.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

70<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

75<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

80<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

85+<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Source: C.D.C.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A common refrain, Dr. Aronson said, is that older Americans might have died of something else \u2014 cancer, heart disease or old age \u2014 had Covid not hit them. But that does not mean, she said, that their final years were not cut short. In the two years before the pandemic, an average of 877,000 people over 85 died each year. In 2020 and 2021, the same age group saw 100,000 more deaths than that each year.<\/p>\n

Comparisons to the impact of the flu, which overwhelmingly kills older people, do not hold up either. Covid has killed at least eight times as many people as the flu and pneumonia do in a comparable timespan, according to Andrew Noymer, an associate professor of public health at the University of California, Irvine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I die of Covid today, my death is borrowed against future deaths,\u201d Dr. Noymer said. \u201cBut the point is, it may be borrowed 10 years in advance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

A Lasting Racial Disparity<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see the toll it was taking on the African American population.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

BY<\/strong> MARCH 2021,<\/strong> Howard Jenkins, the pastor of Bethel A.M.E. Church in Providence, R.I., already felt, he said, \u201cbombarded by death.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had consoled numerous congregants whose family members had died of Covid. He had eulogized a personal friend who had died of Covid. Appalled at the toll the virus was taking on Black people, he said, he had overcome his own reluctance to get vaccinated so that he could encourage others to do so.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Howard Jenkins has witnessed how Covid has disproportionately affected his Black and Latino neighbors.<\/span> Sophie Park for The New York Times<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

At 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. prayer sessions with his congregation, Mr. Jenkins said, he would hear from family members who had lost loved ones. \u201cI could see the toll it was taking on the African American population, in the state and outside the state.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Black and Hispanic people in every age group have died at higher rates than white people. The racial disparity in deaths was especially extreme at the beginning of the pandemic, but the gaps remain today.<\/p>\n

\n

Covid-19 death rates by age and race<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

White<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Asian<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Black<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Hispanic<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

250<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

500<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

1,000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2,000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

3,000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

4,000 deaths per<\/p>\n

100,000 people<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Ages<\/p>\n

25-34<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

35-44<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

45-54<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Black and Hispanic people have had the highest death rates in all age groups.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

55-64<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

65-74<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

75-84<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

85+<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Note: Rates for White, Black and Asian people exclude Hispanics. Rates for Native Americans and Pacific Islanders were less reliable because of low total counts and are not shown. | Source: C.D.C.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Hispanic people ages 25 to 54 died at a rate more than four times as high as white people of the same age group before vaccines became widely available. Black people of the same age group died at more than three times the rate during that period.<\/p>\n

\n

Covid-19 death rates among those ages 25-54<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

10 deaths<\/p>\n

per 100,000 people<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Hispanic<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Black<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

5<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

White<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Asian<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

March 2020<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Jan. 2021<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Jan. 2022<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Note: Data is monthly. | Sources: C.D.C., Census Bureau<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In part, that is because a disproportionate share of essential workers are people of color, public health experts said.<\/p>\n

Another reason for persistent disparities in deaths was lower vaccination rates. White people were significantly more likely to be vaccinated than Black and Hispanic people in the first months of the vaccine rollout.<\/p>\n

The gap between Black and white people has since narrowed to about six percentage points, while Hispanic people now have a slightly higher rate of vaccination than white people, according to a recent analysis<\/a> by the Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n

David Hayes-Bautista, a professor of medicine and the director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the University of California, Los Angeles, said more crowded housing might also have contributed to higher transmission rates, hospitalizations and deaths in Black and Hispanic families.<\/p>\n

In early 2021, at an east Los Angeles hospital that serves mostly Latino residents, \u201cI could see it right there in front of my eyes,\u201d Dr. Hayes-Bautista said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout the third week of January, we thought, \u2018We can\u2019t add one more patient.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Workers Without Options<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no choice but to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

MEAT-PACKING WORKERS HAD<\/strong> been dying of Covid<\/a>. Transit workers had been dying of Covid<\/a>. Farm workers had been dying of Covid<\/a>. At the Ralphs grocery store where Carmen Portillo worked as a cashier, the bakery manager had died of Covid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have to come back, don\u2019t come back,\u201d Ms. Portillo, 53, recalled her co-workers telling her after she took a short leave. \u201cBecause this is bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

But like many workers who came to be known as \u201cessential\u201d because their jobs required in-person work, Ms. Portillo felt she had no choice. Her husband, a restaurant worker, was making less because of closures, and they had a mortgage on their home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Van Nuys.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Carmen Portillo has been a grocery store worker at Ralphs for the past 32 years.<\/span> Mark Abramson for The New York Times<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Even as she silently raged at some customers who refused to wear masks, she said she took satisfaction in the praise she received from others.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a single day passed by that someone didn\u2019t say, \u2018You guys are heroes,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Portillo survived a bout of Covid in the fall of 2020, but a close friend, Jose Sanchez, a janitor at a Los Angeles-area mall, did not. Mr. Sanchez had tested positive a few days after accepting a ride home with a co-worker who was later found to have had Covid, Ms. Portillo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey worked late, till 1 a.m.,\u201d Ms. Portillo said. \u201cThere were no buses at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Nearly 80 percent of workers ages 20 to 64 who died of Covid in 2020 worked in industries designated as essential, according to data obtained by a team of researchers led by Yea-Hung Chen, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. Workers in 11 sectors that were exempt from stay-at-home orders \u2014 including food services, health care, construction, transportation, agriculture and manufacturing \u2014 were almost twice as likely <\/a>to die from Covid<\/a> as others the same age, the researchers found. About two-thirds of workers in the United States are employed in industries that fall within the classification.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese workers were by definition more exposed, but the extent of the disparities was striking,\u201d Dr. Chen said.<\/p>\n

\n

Covid-19 deaths by occupation in 2020<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

Other workers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Essential workers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Bus<\/p>\n

drivers<\/p>\n

414<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Cashiers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Cooks<\/p>\n

1,913<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Laborers and<\/p>\n

material movers<\/p>\n

1,770<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Machinists<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Agricultural<\/p>\n

workers<\/p>\n

566<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Accountants<\/p>\n

518<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Cleaners<\/p>\n

660<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Child<\/p>\n

care<\/p>\n

workers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Nurses<\/p>\n

2,176<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Construction workers<\/p>\n

3,143<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Clergy<\/p>\n

438<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Manufacturing workers<\/p>\n

1,770<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Counselors<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Hairdressers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Physicians<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Security<\/p>\n

guards<\/p>\n

781<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Drivers and<\/p>\n

truck drivers<\/p>\n

2,299<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Managers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Personal care<\/p>\n

aides<\/p>\n

659<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Social<\/p>\n

workers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Dishwashers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Janitors<\/p>\n

1,426<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Retail workers<\/p>\n

1,943<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Waiters<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Electricians<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Musicians<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

K-12 teachers<\/p>\n

808<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Taxi drivers<\/p>\n

509<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Farmers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Brokers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Note: Chart shows 37,905 deaths among workers age 64 and under in 46 states. Some similar occupational categories have been collapsed into larger representative categories. In some cases, similar occupations from different industries are grouped together. Not all occupations are labeled. | Source: Yea-Hung Chen et al., preprint via medRxiv<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Income is also a predictor of a person\u2019s risk of dying of Covid in this country. People without a college degree and those who live in poorer neighborhoods have been more likely to die of Covid<\/a> than those with a college degree and people who live in wealthier ZIP codes.<\/p>\n

Data from the country\u2019s three largest cities shows that the highest-income neighborhoods have generally seen the least death over the course of the pandemic, while the poorest neighborhoods have seen the most.<\/p>\n

\n

Covid-19 deaths by income in major cities<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

New York City<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Los Angeles County<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Chicago<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

1,500 deaths<\/p>\n

per 100,000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Higher death rate,<\/p>\n

lower income<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Median<\/p>\n

income<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

One ZIP code<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

1,000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

500<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Lower death rate,<\/p>\n

higher income<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

$0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

$100,000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

$200,000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

$0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

$100,000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

$200,000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

$0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

$100,000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

$200,000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Note: Each dot shows deaths and income for one ZIP code. | Sources: Census Bureau, N.Y.C. Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, California Department of Public Health, City of Chicago<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Lower incomes also correlate with a lower likelihood of vaccination, which is in turn associated with Covid deaths. For example, while Republicans have been far more likely to go unvaccinated than Democrats, a divide also exists between high-earning Republicans and poorer ones: According to one survey of self-identified Republican voters in June 2021 conducted by Abram Wagner, a University of Michigan epidemiologist, Republicans with monthly incomes of under $2,000 were twice as likely to be unvaccinated as those with monthly incomes of $5,000 or above.<\/p>\n

The United States is far from the only country that has suffered a staggering death toll. The World Health Organization estimates<\/a> that 4.7 million more people died in India during the pandemic than would have in normal times, and that one million more died in both Russia and Indonesia. Several smaller countries also have experienced higher death rates than the United States.<\/p>\n

But there is little doubt that America fared worse than almost all wealthy nations, with one of the highest rates of infection, according to an analysis in The Lancet<\/a>. Among working-age people, Dr. Chen said, essential workers \u201cbore the brunt of these exposures.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Nursing Homes Battered<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat have we done to prevent 200,000 nursing home deaths from the next virus?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

WHEN MARY-ANN CAREY OF <\/strong>Granville, N.Y., fell and broke her hip in May 2020, she moved into a nursing home for an eight-week stay. Her daughter, Frances Brunner, was terrified.<\/p>\n

The nursing home, like others around the country, did not allow family members to come inside, and Ms. Brunner worried that the home was understaffed and would be hit by the virus, as so many others were during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople\u2019s family members were dying and they couldn\u2019t see them,\u201d said Ms. Brunner, who said she eventually pulled her mother out of the home against the staff\u2019s recommendations. \u201cI got the best-case scenario because I got my mother back. I\u2019m one of the lucky ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
In a Pennsylvania nursing home, a patient was transported back to her room after a visit with her daughter in March 2021.<\/span> Kristian Thacker for The New York Times<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Her mother, who is in her 80s, has suffered a cognitive decline and last year became ill with a stomach flu that left Ms. Brunner wondering whether she could continue taking care of her.<\/p>\n

In the end, though, Ms. Brunner said the pandemic turned her against the idea of her mother living in a facility long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my mother,\u201d Ms. Brunner said. \u201cIf I put her in a nursing home, she\u2019d never come home again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The virus swept through places like prisons, colleges and group homes, where people live together, but the toll was especially high in long-term care facilities, like nursing homes.<\/p>\n

Residents of long-term care facilities continued to die long after the early months of the pandemic, and long after lockdowns that were criticized later for isolating seniors<\/a> in dangerous, damaging ways.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
54,000
\nDeaths of nursing home residents and staff<\/div>\n
71,544
\nOther deaths<\/div>\n
Spring 2020<\/div>\n
205,126
\nDeaths of nursing home residents and staff<\/div>\n
791,486
\nOther deaths<\/div>\n
2020 – Present<\/div>\n
March 2020<\/div>\n
Jan. 2021<\/div>\n
April 2022<\/div>\n
Dec. 17, 2020
\nVaccinations begin in nursing homes<\/div>\n
135,886
\nDeaths in nursing homes<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Early on, a shocking 43 percent of all Covid deaths were among residents and staff members at long-term care facilities. The proportion would shrink, but the deaths continued to rise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In total, more than 200,000 deaths \u2014 about one in five of all who have died \u2014 have been associated with these facilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Deaths in nursing homes slowed sharply in January 2021, weeks after vaccines were introduced. But they did not vanish entirely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

As Delta and then Omicron swept the country months later, deaths in nursing homes rose again, though never to the levels seen before vaccinations.<\/p>\n

Some experts blamed relatively low vaccination rates among nursing home workers before shots were mandated by the federal government. But experts also pointed to problems that existed before the pandemic, like crowding, underfunding and staffing shortages.<\/p>\n

Industry leaders have called on the federal government to make a major investment to protect nursing homes by improving staffing and care.<\/p>\n

But Dr. David Gifford, the chief medical officer for the American Health Care Association, which represents thousands of long-term care facilities, is not optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s baffling,\u201d he said, \u201cthat public health and government officials point out that there was a large proportion of the deaths from nursing homes, and then when asked to provide resources, they\u2019re combative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Jim Wright, who was the medical director at a Richmond, Va., nursing home where 51 people died, said that Covid had exposed failings in the country\u2019s system of long-term care centers that had yet to be widely addressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat have we done to prevent 200,000 nursing home deaths from the next virus?\u201d Dr. Wright, who now works at two different care facilities, asked. \u201cWe didn\u2019t do much.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Relentless Blows to the South<\/p>\n

\u201cA disaster that was coming back and back and back.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

RANDOLPH <\/strong>SEALS<\/strong>, 39, <\/strong>WAS<\/strong> elected the coroner for Bolivar County, in rural western Mississippi, in 2015. But the relentlessness of the deaths linked to Covid, and his personal ties to so many who were dying, brought him to the brink of quitting in the fall of 2020.<\/p>\n

By early 2021, when the South\u2019s death rate spiked again, he wished he had. Then came the Delta variant, and the Omicron wave, and it just got worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a disaster that was coming back and back and back,\u201d Mr. Seals said.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Randolph Seals almost quit his job as a coroner in Mississippi during the pandemic.<\/span> Houston Cofield for The New York Times<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As hospitals overflowed, many residents died in their homes. The ripple effect of the pandemic was evident, too, as Mr. Seals began recording the deaths of people with heart or kidney disease for whom there were no hospital beds. Now, he said, he is handling the deaths of people who had Covid and never quite recovered.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
Northeast <\/strong>
\n211,923 deaths<\/div>\n
Midwest <\/strong>
\n211,648 deaths<\/div>\n
West <\/strong>
\n189,805 deaths<\/div>\n
South <\/strong>
\n378,472 deaths<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

While other regions endured several waves of the virus, the South has suffered more frequent and extreme waves of infection and death.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

More than 378,000 people in the region have died, many of them younger.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The South has also experienced the highest death rates from Covid of any region. In part, that is because it is home to some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. Since vaccines became available, the average death rate fell everywhere but the South, where it rose by about 4 percent.<\/p>\n

Epidemiologists also pointed to less stringent responses \u2014 lockdowns that ended sooner and masking restrictions that were not enforced as strictly, even when they were in place.<\/p>\n

The South has also suffered because the share of adults with three or more chronic health conditions is higher on average than in any other region. Many chronic health problems are risk factors for the coronavirus, and several studies have suggested that 30 percent to 40 percent of all Covid deaths in the United States involved people with diabetes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mississippi has the highest Covid death rate of any state, and one of the lowest vaccination rates. Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the state\u2019s health officer, said that even given the catastrophic problems with underlying illnesses in Mississippi, persuading more people to get vaccinated would have helped prevent many deaths.<\/p>\n

It has been an uphill battle, Dr. Dobbs said, to compete with misinformation, especially on social media, and with people who tried to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic. Polarization around the virus and vaccines, he said, was devastating.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither you were fully on board or you did absolutely nothing and ran headlong into the buzz saw that was Covid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For Mr. Seals, the coroner, the scale of loss has been hard to wrap his mind around.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I ran for county coroner, my biggest fear was a plane falling in my county, or a school bus crash,\u201d he said. \u201cOnly the grace of God and my faith kept me grounded.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Related stories<\/p>\n

The Lost Americans<\/a> May 14, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

The Daily: One Million<\/a> May 13, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

A Ripple Effect of Loss: U.S. Covid Deaths Approach 500,000<\/a> Feb. 21, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n

How 450,000 Coronavirus Deaths Added Up<\/a> Feb. 3, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n

‘The Other Half of My Soul’: Widows of Covid-19 Bond Over Sudden Loss<\/a> Jan. 2, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n

Remembering the 100,000 Lives Lost to Coronavirus in America<\/a>May 27, 2020<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Additional credits<\/p>\n

Reporting was contributed by Brandon Dupr\u00e9, Cierra S. Queen, Sarah Cahalan, Chloe Reynolds, Yves De Jesus, Laney Pope, Lauryn Higgins, Jess Ruderman, Bonnie G. Wong, Kristine White and Matt Craig.<\/p>\n

Kitty Bennett and Alain Delaqu\u00e9ri\u00e8re contributed research.<\/p>\n

Additional production by Or Fleisher, Nick Bartzokas and Don McCurdy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

About the data<\/p>\n

Unless otherwise noted, data on Covid-19 deaths in this article comes from a New York Times database of reports from state and local health agencies<\/a>. Data is as of May 9, 2022, when 996,612 deaths had been reported in the United States, including Puerto Rico and the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n

The interactive graphics include up to 996,612 dots on larger screens \u2014 one for each death. On smaller screens, each dot represents four deaths.<\/p>\n

Data shown on the map and in the initial timeline is through May 3, 2022, and excludes deaths in Puerto Rico, other U.S. territories and deaths for which the county is unknown. Data for Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories is also excluded from demographic analyses of race and age.<\/p>\n

Demographic data on Covid deaths comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s National Center for Health Statistics, accessed via the C.D.C.\u2019s WONDER database<\/a>. Data is as of May 1, 2022, and includes deaths through April 16, 2022, at which point there were 889,972 recorded deaths that had Covid-19 listed as the underlying cause. Deaths for which Covid-19 was listed on the death certificate but not as the cause of death were not included.<\/p>\n

Death certificate data for 2021 and 2022 remains incomplete and provisional<\/a>. States and local health departments may have different criteria for reporting Covid deaths than the C.D.C. For these reasons, the demographic analysis does not include all reported deaths.<\/p>\n

Data on death rates for unvaccinated and vaccinated people comes from a C.D.C. compilation<\/a>of data from 25 state and local health departments covering 66 percent of the U.S. population.<\/p>\n

Data on deaths among residents and staff members of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities comes from a New York Times database<\/a> through June 1, 2021, and from the C.D.C.<\/a> after that. The C.D.C. data includes only deaths from nursing homes and not from other long-term care facilities. Deaths shown in the timeline of deaths in nursing homes are those in which the place of death was listed as a nursing home or long-term care facility in the WONDER database.<\/p>\n

ZIP code data showing death rate by median household income includes cumulative death rate data through May 9, 2022, for New York City and Chicago. Los Angeles data comes from the California Department of Public Health via a research group led by Yea-Hung Chen and includes many but not all deaths occurring through the end of 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How America Lost One Million People, The New York Times, May 13, 2022   We let the last Issue and Message run a few days long because of the importance of one issue, while we also waited a few days for an upcoming article (now here) on another important issue. In terms of impact, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13446"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13468,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13446\/revisions\/13468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}