COVID-19 Update

WaPo Live Update: (freebie)

Vaccination could have prevented 90,000 deaths over four months, study says

Approximately 90,000 covid-19 deaths could have been avoided over four months of this year if more U.S. adults had chosen to be vaccinated, a new study finds, as the disease caused by the coronavirus became the second-leading cause of death in the United States.

The estimate from the Peterson Center on Healthcare and the Kaiser Family Foundation focused on deaths of U.S. adults from June 2021 — when the report says coronavirus vaccines became widely available to the general public — through September.

Around half of the deaths it deemed preventable occurred in September, due to the spread of the more contagious delta variant, the easing of social distancing rules and the lower vaccination rate among younger adults, the study says. That month, covid-19 was the leading cause of death for adults between ages 35 and 54, superseding heart disease and cancer.

Coronavirus cases in the United States are falling again, but the virus is not yet under “control,” Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said Wednesday. More than 1,600 people died of covid-19 every day on average in the first week of October. The large majority of those deaths were “preventable,” the study’s authors wrote.

Un-Fun Fact, per Officer Down:

For all of 2020, and so far in 2021, COVID-19 is the leading cause of death among On-Duty Law Enforcement Officers.

In the meantime, we're beginning to see something of a slow decline in cases and deaths, indicating the Delta Wave is receding and that the pandemic may be less of a threat in the coming few months - if we can stay committed to vaccinations and masks.