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United States

US Surpasses 800,000 COVID-19 Deaths (bbc.com) 180

gollum123 shares a report from the BBC: More than 800,000 Americans have now died from the coronavirus, the highest recorded national death toll from the global pandemic. It comes as the US reached 50 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Monday. Most deaths have been recorded among the unvaccinated and the elderly, and more Americans died in 2021 than in 2020. The 800,000 total exceeds the populations of cities such as Boston or Washington DC. The milestone means nearly twice as many Americans have died during the pandemic as in World War 2. The last 100,000 deaths came in just the past 11 weeks, a quicker pace than any at other point aside from last winter's surge.
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US Surpasses 800,000 COVID-19 Deaths

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  • Am I saying it rite?
    • by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @06:39PM (#62084507)
      The estimated number of excess deaths is 917,403, if you prefer that

      https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/... [cdc.gov]

    • by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @06:53PM (#62084537)

      Look at the reported death rate from 2019, then compare to 2020 and 2021. There's a big bump that stands out, and any amount of handwaving of "they were old and feeble and would have died anyway" doesn't hold water.

      • by ravenshrike ( 808508 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @07:12PM (#62084593)

        Because of course the banning of "elective"(read things that won't kill you in the next week) surgeries and lockdowns drastically changing peoples mental state and thus susceptibility to disease, drug abuse, and suicide would have had ZERO effect on the death toll.

        • I'm just pushing back against the incorrect notion that covid-19 is not serious and all the stats are bogus and should be ignored. It's a real thing, real people have died of all ages, and it's not just like the flu. If that's not your stance then ok, but there are too many here on slashdot who've bought into the idea that it's a hoax. If CDC has numbers, I trust them more than any armchair slashdot epidemiologist to get the numbers right and to not throw politics into it.

          • Like many lay people who do not know much about medicine, you may be labouring under the misapprehension that flu is not a deadly disease. It can be.

            The 1967-8 and 1967-8 flu epidemics each killed over 100,000 people in the USA alone.

            The popular image of flu is of a really bad cold, plus sickness, headache and perhaps fever, that keeps one at home for a week or two. Whereas the popular image of Covid-19 is of a deadly plague that cuts people down at all ages. In fact there is much less difference between th

            • Flu practically disappeared worldwide in 2020 and 2021. The official explanation is that this was due to all the precautions taken against Covid-19. Apparently handwashing, masks and social distancing were enough to reduce flu to noise level - but had hardly any impact on Covid-19 because it is so very much more infectious and deadly!

              There is another, much more obvious and logical explanation.

              Well don't leave us hanging.
              What did QAnon tell you the reason was?

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          Suicides have dropped. But that doesn't matter because you've clearly already decided your own personal truth regardless of data.

        • by test321 ( 8891681 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @08:46PM (#62084909)

          Except there causes of death you describe are well documented and have not increased. People who died in hospital "with" or "from" covid exhibited respiratory symptoms, definitely not suicide or drug abuse. Also, we know for a fact there has not been increase in suicides, to the contrary they even slightly decreased (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2021.102695/ [doi.org]). Drug supplies have been reduced sue to travelling restrictions and prices increased (https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/06/1066992/ [un.org]) and the drug that increased was cannabis (https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1094672/ [un.org]), which is not known to cause deaths.

          Lockdowns caused a 40% reduction in traffic fatalities (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-provisional-results-2020/the-impact-of-lockdown-on-reported-road-casualties-great-britain-provisional-results-2020/ [www.gov.uk]) and 50% reduction in sports accidents (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-80309-x/ [doi.org]) and obviously suppressed work accidents.

          Reduction in diagnosis of cancer and HIV are a big concern for next years, but have likely not caused increased deaths this year as these diseases evolve slowly.

          If anything, lockdowns biased the statistics towards lower mortality. The fact that we did observed excess death in a lockdown situation (with same or fewer suicides than before), is evidence that something, let's call it a virus, has been killing us.

          • If anything, lockdowns biased the statistics towards lower mortality. The fact that we did observed excess death in a lockdown situation (with same or fewer suicides than before), is evidence that something, let's call it a virus, has been killing us.

            I'm not saying it's aliens...

          • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            I wonder how the pandemic has affected medical related bankruptcies.

            Someone posted a bill for intubation and 60 days in ICU due to COVID on Twitter. $3.4 million.

            • Judging from reading the average posting on The Herman Cain Awards [reddit.com] the progression is like this:

              Posting anti-vax memes
              Grandstanding
              Reporting about hospitalization
              Asking for prayers
              Posting the GoFundMe page to pay for cremation

              • He's dead and you still need to bash him. What is wrong with you?

                • He's dead and you still need to bash him. What is wrong with you?

                  Wrong? This is education. Shortly before Cain came down with Covid, there is a photo of him at a Trump Rally, smiling, proud, socially close, maskless.

                  Shortly after? He ded. It's like safe sex. It's like wearing seat belts or motorcycle helmets. There were so many simple precautions he could have taken. He defiantly took none, and like I said, he ded.

                  Sometimes the purpose of a person's life is to serve as a warning to others.

        • Because of course the banning of "elective"(read things that won't kill you in the next week) surgeries and lockdowns drastically changing peoples mental state and thus susceptibility to disease, drug abuse, and suicide would have had ZERO effect on the death toll.

          I think the technical term is collateral damage, and yes it is real, but it is a small fraction of the casualties of war.

        • Talk for yourself, my mood and general well being went way UP in 2020.

          Best year of my life.

          Big thanks to all the anti-vax loonies that keep the ball rolling. Thanks for adding to my comfort, your sacrifice was not in vain.

          • Talk for yourself, my mood and general well being went way UP in 2020.

            Best year of my life.

            Big thanks to all the anti-vax loonies that keep the ball rolling. Thanks for adding to my comfort, your sacrifice was not in vain.

            I surely lost any and all sympathy for them. At first it was like "Come on! The test period showed that the vaccines are safe - certainly safer than dying from it".

            Then it was "Seriously - taking malaria meds for a viral infection? Sigh.." Then it was "cattle dewormer and gargling with Betadine? And pointing to a retracted pseudo study that showed Toxic levels of Ivermectin slowed the reproduction of the virus. Yeah, sodium hypochlorite does a number on it too.

            Finally, I came to the realization that th

      • Look at the reported death rate from 2019, then compare to 2020 and 2021. There's a big bump that stands out, and any amount of handwaving of "they were old and feeble and would have died anyway" doesn't hold water.

        I just lost a good friend this past weekend. He was mid 50's robust and fit.

        He thought his good health and condition was all he needed to have Covid just be a case of the sniffles. No vaccines for this guy. And masks were fro cowards and didn't work anyhow.

        I guess the golden lining was he only lasted a week in the hospital, so it wasn't too much torture. Leaves behind friends and family wrestling with the dual condition of sadness and deep anger for wasting his life that way.

        I think the latest surge i

    • No. Those who died "with" are broken out by the CDC and are not part of the 822k counted as dead due to covid.
      These are people who had car accidents, heart attacks, and other reasons to go to the hospital and then were found to *also* have covid when tested on admission.

      It's easy to find the data in one of the various CDC "weekly mortality reports" that broke out the numbers.

      Not that you probably ever looked.

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Not that you probably ever looked.

        Indeed. Covidiots are the type of idiot that is so convinced they have absolute truth that they eliminate every possibility of ever finding out they could be wrong. These people do not look at data or facts, except for that carefully filtered tiny fraction that can be misinterpreted to say they are right.

    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Am I saying it rite?

      Ah, those in denial. Always sticking to their fantasies to the very end. Got to admire the stubbornness.

      Down here in the real world, this is an _underestimation_ of the number that died _from_ COVID. The excess mortality numbers are very clear.

    • No you are not.
      Died with and died by are published separate.
      What else would be the point in having two metrics?

  • by JoshuaZ ( 1134087 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @06:26PM (#62084465) Homepage
    The US had around 600,000 to 700,000 deaths from the 1918 flu before it subsided. (See e.g. estimate here of 675,000 https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html [cdc.gov]). Given that the US population was about a little under a third of the current US population, that would still make the 1918 flu a little under three times more deadly. However, covid is not yet over, so the 800,000 number is going to keep climbing (probably to at least a million by the end of this). And we have better treatment for this sort of thing now (such as ventilators) and the US population is in some respects healthier now. So it isn't really clear how well to make a direct comparison.
    • So it isn't really clear how well to make a direct comparison.

      Both killed a lot of people, and both are many times more deadly than the typical seasonal flu virus.

    • by Tony Isaac ( 1301187 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @06:31PM (#62084481) Homepage

      The 1918 flu is also not yet over. Variants have killed tens of thousands of people per year, every year, ever since.

      https://www.history.com/news/1... [history.com]

      • by mjwx ( 966435 )

        The 1918 flu is also not yet over. Variants have killed tens of thousands of people per year, every year, ever since.

        https://www.history.com/news/1... [history.com]

        The thing about the 1918 Flu is that since then, we've had far worse variants of the virus that have cause far fewer deaths. This is because of two major reasons, the 1918 pandemic coincided with a famine, malnutrition was rife. Also we didn't know to isolate patients and protect staff with protective equipment. Infected people were stacked in like cordwood with those who hadn't contracted the virus, bedding was not cleaned when patients were moved, things like that.

        Avian flu was a far deadlier virus, bu

    • by AleRunner ( 4556245 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @07:17PM (#62084617)

      In 1918 they didn't have

      • flu vaccines
      • intensive care (1950s)
      • forced ventilation (1928)
      • antibody medications
      • antivirals
      • anti-inflammatory drugs like steroids

      Just sayin'

      • by dasunt ( 249686 ) on Thursday December 16, 2021 @12:21AM (#62085343)

        In 1918 they didn't have

        flu vaccines
        intensive care (1950s)
        forced ventilation (1928)
        antibody medications
        antivirals
        anti-inflammatory drugs like steroids
        Just sayin'

        We only have most of that list as long as covid cases remain under a certain number.

        That's a large reason behind experts push for masking orders, social distancing, etc - keeping the intensive care, forced ventilation, and medical experts from being overwhelmed.

        If we hit the point where we're at medical capacity, we're basically back to the 1910s for care for the remaining cases.

        What should scare thinking Americans is that as far as pandemics go, covid was manageable with the knowledge we had, and we still horribly dropped the ball.

        What happens when we have a virus that's far better at spreading, where most cases are severe, and we still have the anti-mask/anti-vax crowd?

        • by Calydor ( 739835 )

          Not to mention that once the ICUs hit full capacity it's not only Covid patients that are screwed, it's everyone else as well. Strokes, traffic accidents, all those other things you end up in the ICU over - if there are no beds left then there are no beds left.

    • So it isn't really clear how well to make a direct comparison.

      From pandemic to endemic?

    • by eepok ( 545733 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @07:44PM (#62084709) Homepage

      I like that you mention the differences in medical care because anti-vaxers always forget that today's medicine is just a bit better than in 1918.

      - 1918 Flu - 675k of the 103M people (1918 US population) is huge-- 0.655% of the entire population.

      - COVID-19 - 800k of the 333M people (2021 US population) isn't as big (0.24% of the entire population), but we also have today's medical system. From diagnostics like x-rays, blood-oxygen monitoring, and viral testing to actual treatments like monoclonal antibodies and intubation. We're way WAY more likely to find, isolate, and treat the infected.

      Were we to have provided exactly the same level of medical care that people received in 1918, we would have seen millions dead in the US by now. And, to be honest, we're "running out" of medical care. The people are burned out. (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/19/us-faces-nurse-shortage-burnout-covid).

      My guess is that we'll hit a million dead from COVID-19 by Spring 2022.

    • So it isn't really clear how well to make a direct comparison

      Similarly the comparison with World War II, meant to evoke memories of one of the most horrific death tolls in history, is deceptive since the U.S. barely participated in that. I'd like to see them compare Russian COVID deaths vs Russian WWII deaths.

      • Similarly the comparison with World War II, meant to evoke memories of one of the most horrific death tolls in history, is deceptive since the U.S. barely participated in that. I'd like to see them compare Russian COVID deaths vs Russian WWII deaths.

        Both he US and the Germans are much better than the Russians in that regard. Not sure what your point is though.

  • The real question (Score:5, Insightful)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Wednesday December 15, 2021 @06:54PM (#62084541)

    We should be asking is after vaccines became readily available, how many [go.com] people died [nbcnews.com] because they [al.com] refused to [businessinsider.com] get vaccinated [businessinsider.com]?

    • Ah the infamous Herman Cain award.

  • At Biden and Trump's final debate, Joe Biden said: "Anyone who's responsible for that many deaths [220,000] should not remain as president of the United States of America."
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by kobaz ( 107760 )

      The difference was, Trump was largely responsible for thousands and thousands of deaths because of his downplay of the pandemic, pushing quack treatments and being an all-around dumbass about the entire thing.

      Whereas Biden you know... is actually putting things in place to try and prevent more deaths.

      Something to think about.

    • The crushing majority of the death are due to decision, and politics made by the GOP and Trump, the vir5us rage among republican population. Just because the presidency changed DOES NOT make him suddenly responsible for the whole shebang. this is the same 2-party shithead thinking which bring people to accuse a president which has been there for a few month to be suddenly responsible for the shit the other did in the last 4 years. Note that above I did not say reps/dems, both party have been doing this fin
  • This is horrible to say and feel, but it's true - I'm just out of sympathy for the unvaccinated who catch and die from (with) COVID. Vaccines have been widely available in the US for almost a year, and most other developed countries for at least six months. This is one giant, un-funny Darwin Award playing out here, and it's a tragedy for all involved.

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