I’m really worried about the state of the US despite being a white male who was I’ll coast right through it. I’ll also accept “I don’t” and “very poorly” as answers
Well, insofar that the pandemic “won”, the infection is now endemic and part of everyday life, like herpes or the common cold.
The provisional count of all US deaths involving COVID-19 was 48,615 compared to over 200,000 during the same time period in 2022. Of those 98.4% of the deaths were elderly Americans. The pandemic is long over.
March 13 2021 was when around 1/3rd of eligible people in the US received their first vaccines. The vaccines are mostly effective for 6-12 months and then their efficacy wanes due to the new strains that keep emerging due to mass reinfections. New strains are evolving faster now that mass reinfection is standard procedure in the world.
In 2022 covid was still the fourth leading cause of death. Now during 2023 barely anyone is testing, less people are getting boosters, and every reinfection causes cumulative damage and an increase risk of Long Covid so as this is only the second (kind of first) year of mass reinfections and extremely minimal booster rates I think its safe to assume the pandemic is now getting worse due to people ignoring it and governments not mandating masks or increase of air quality in businesses, schools, etc.
Covid causes “serious toll on heart health a full year after recovery including heart attacks, arrhythmias, strokes, cardiac arrest, and more. Even people who never went to the hospital had more cardiovascular disease than those who were never infected” and heart disease is the number one leading cause of death in the US
Covid is a mass disabling event already causing 2-4 million people in the US alone to be disabled and unable to work.).
Covid is far from over.
if Climate Change is our “don’t look up”, Covid and Long Covid is our “don’t look around”. Although we do have the tools to easily combat the pandemic, N95 masks and air purifiers or even better are the CR boxes which are DIY air purifiers that are much more efficient and affordable than commercial hepa purfiers.
That’s not a low number. COVID-19 still accounts for 3% of deaths in the last week. Two of my friends have caught it again in the last month.
