Written by Steven Hansen
The U.S. new cases 7-day rolling average are 10.8 % LOWER than the 7-day rolling average one week ago and U.S. deaths due to coronavirus are now 3.4 % LOWER than the rolling average one week ago. Today’s posts include:
- U.S. Coronavirus New Cases are 40,531
- U.S. Coronavirus deaths are at 890
- U.S. Coronavirus immunizations have been administered to 73.8 doses per 100 people.
- The 7-day rolling average rate of growth of the pandemic shows new cases improved and deaths were little changed
- India’s Top Science Adviser Warns of ‘Inevitable’ Third Wave as Country Grapples With Soaring COVID Cases
- India G-7 Delegation Forced To Self-Isolate After Positive Coronavirus Tests
- $100 as Incentive to Get a Shot? Experiment Suggests It Can Pay Off
- COVID-19 Severity Starts in Normal BMI Range, Especially in Young
- HEPA filters reduce respiratory aerosols produced during intense exercise
- Study reveals no negative effect of SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 vaccination on male fertility
- 20 of 26 COVID-positive residents in a Kentucky nursing home outbreak were fully vaccinated a month earlier
- A Crisis of Undiagnosed Cancers Is Emerging in the Pandemic’s Second Year
- The COVID-19 Pandemic’s Impact on Sleep
- Dr. Mercola deletes all articles about Vitamin D, zinc and covid after being personally threatened
- The Covid Olympics
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Hospitalizations Are The Only Accurate Gauge
Hospitalizations historically appear to be little affected by weekends or holidays. The hospitalization growth rate trend continues to improve.
source: https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/covidnet/COVID19_3.html
Historically, hospitalization growth follows new case growth by one to two weeks.
As an analyst, I use the rate of growth to determine the trend. But, the size of the pandemic is growing in terms of real numbers – and if the rate of growth does not become negative – the pandemic will overwhelm all resources.
The graph below shows the rate of growth relative to the growth a week earlier updated through today [note that negative numbers mean the rolling averages are LOWER than the rolling averages one week ago]. As one can see, the rate of growth for new cases peaked in early December 2020 for Thanksgiving, and early January 2021 for end-of-year holidays – and it now shows that the coronavirus effect is improving.
In the scheme of things, new cases decline first, followed by hospitalizations, and then deaths. The potential fourth wave did not materialize likely due to immunizations.
Coronavirus News You May Have Missed
The Covid Olympics – New York Times
Japan’s Covid response has been so successful that it achieved a remarkable feat: Overall deaths declined in 2020, even as they were surging in the U.S. and much of the rest of the world. Japan kept its Covid toll low, and its pandemic measures caused a decline in some other fatalities, like those from the flu and vehicle accidents.
What did Japan do right?
It already had a culture of mask wearing to prevent illness, and masks became almost ubiquitous early last year. (This article by Motoko, from almost a year ago, compares mask habits in Japan and the U.S.) The government also virtually closed its borders. And it was quick to focus on the settings where the coronavirus was most likely to spread, warning people to avoid the “three C’s” – closed spaces, crowded places and close contact.
By The New York Times | Sources: Governments, health agencies and hospitalsThis success has led to one problem, however. Japan has been slow to vaccinate its population, with only 2 percent of residents having received a shot. There is less urgency to do so in a country where fewer than 11,000 people have died of Covid.
Japanese regulators have so far approved only Pfizer’s vaccine and are still evaluating Moderna’s and AstraZeneca’s, despite their obvious success elsewhere. Even if those vaccines are approved soon, the government’s contracts with the vaccine makers do not require the delivery of many doses until late this year, Motoko notes. The country appears to be months away from reaching the vaccination levels of the U.S., Britain, Israel and other world leaders.
That is worrisome, because Japan has not defeated Covid. Cases have risen over the past two months, and the government declared a state of emergency in several major cities, urging new restrictions on activity. “Japan has recently lost a little control of the caseloads,” Motoko says. “Of course, it’s nothing like New Delhi, but it’s not like Sydney or Taipei, either.”
By The New York Times | Sources: Governments, health agencies and hospitalsSuga and Olympic organizers insist that the Games will go on, and there are billions of dollars at stake, not only for Japan but also for the Olympic organizers, major sponsors and television networks, including NBC. For athletes who have trained for years, the cancellation of the Games – after their postponement last year – would be deeply disappointing.
The COVID-19 Pandemic’s Impact on Sleep – 23andMe
The new data indicate that another side-effect of the pandemic is that a lot of us are having more difficulty falling asleep. When we finally do, we’re waking up more at night or having COVID-related or health-related dreams, according to the online survey conducted in early March.
“The survey offers another proof point for the impact of the pandemic and the ensuing stay-at-home orders,” said Eric Rasmussen, 23andMe’s Director of Consumer Insights & Product Marketing. “What we don’t know yet, but something 23andMe scientists would like to know, is how much of an impact these disruptions might have on people’s long-term health.”
The sleep survey results indicate just how much the pandemic has disrupted people’s lives.
More than a quarter of those surveyed reported having trouble falling asleep. At the same time, about 23 percent of those surveyed said they were waking up more than usual. Another 19 percent of the survey respondents said they were restless through the night. One in ten of those surveyed said they either dreamed about COVID-19 or had other health-related dreams.
While not unexpected, the survey gives more data showing how the disruption to work, school, and social interactions have impacted people. Over half of the participants surveyed, 55 percent, were either furloughed, laid off, or working from home. A majority of this group said they were waking up later than they did before the pandemic – 60 percent and 64 percent, respectively. This change could be attributed to a disruption in daily routine, added stress from job loss, or the pandemic’s uncertainty.
… According to the sleep data, people began sleeping more and waking up later immediately after the first shelter-in-place orders went into effect in March of 2020. In the beginning, people slept a lot more, 1.5 hours more each night, according to the data.
… Sleep patterns have slowly crept back toward pre-pandemic patterns. Still, the internal 23andMe research data indicate that people continue to sleep later and get up later each day. But now, instead of sleeping an hour-and-a-half more each night, as they did right at the beginning of the pandemic, they’re sleeping an hour longer.
A Crisis of Undiagnosed Cancers Is Emerging in the Pandemic’s Second Year – ProPublica
In the shadows of COVID-19, another crisis has emerged. With the pandemic in its second year and hope intermittently arriving along with vaccine vials, it’s as if a violent flood has begun to recede, exposing the wreckage left in its wake. Amid the damage is an untold number of cancers that went undiagnosed or untreated as patients postponed annual screenings, and as cancer clinics and hospitals suspended biopsies and chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Across the country, preventive cancer screenings plummeted by as much as 94% during the first four months of last year. At Mount Sinai, the number of mammograms dropped by 96% during that same period. By July, screenings had started to rebound, both nationally and at Mount Sinai, but still trailed pre-COVID-19 numbers. Fewer screenings led to a decline in new diagnoses, which one study found fell by more than 50% for some cancers last year. But people didn’t stop getting cancer; they stopped getting diagnosed.
As patients return to their doctors, the toll of those dark months is becoming visible. The National Cancer Institute has predicted almost 10,000 excess deaths over the next decade from breast and colorectal cancer alone because of pandemic-related delays in diagnosing and treating these two cancers, which often can be detected early through screening and account for about 1 in 6 cancer deaths. Like the pandemic itself, the impact is expected to hit communities of color particularly hard. Black Americans already die of all cancers combined at a higher rate than any other racial group. And cancer is the leading cause of death among Latinos, with breast cancer outranking other cancers for women.
Nearly half of the 46 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in a Kentucky nursing facility in March had been fully vaccinated against the virus more than four weeks earlier, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released last week.
Twenty of the 26 COVID-positive residents and four of 18 COVID-positive healthcare personnel had received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech two-shot coronavirus vaccine at on-site clinics January 10 and 31, a full month before the outbreak on March 1, making them “breakthrough” vaccinated cases of COVID.
Two additional COVID-positive residents who had been fully vaccinated eight days before the outbreak were excluded from the CDC’s analysis.
When the outbreak occurred, 79 of 83 nursing home residents had been fully vaccinated, including more than 90 percent who had received both Pfizer doses a month earlier. CDC experts insist the vaccine should be fully effective two weeks after vaccination.
Among staff, 61 of 116 (52.6 percent) received both shots a month before the outbreak and another five had received their second injections at a clinic in February.
No healthcare workers, vaccinated or unvaccinated, were hospitalized or died.
Three residents died. One was fully vaccinated. Two were not, according to the CDC.
These would have been two of only four residents of 83 in the facility who chose not to be vaccinated and there is no indication from the CDC why they declined to be vaccinated.
The CDC report acknowledges that “the health status of residents who declined vaccination might have differed from those who consented to vaccination.” In other words, they may have been extremely ill or frail or in palliative condition near death, although the report does not describe their condition.
Dr. Mercola deletes all articles about Vitamin D, zinc and covid after being personally threatened – A Final Warning
For the past year, Dr. Joseph Mercola has been teaching his followers how to naturally support their immune systems with vitamin D, zinc and other natural remedies that have been medically proven to optimize wellbeing. He has received so much backlash from the establishment, however, that Dr. Mercola has now decided to delete all associated articles about these protocols for his own protection. In an announcement, Dr. Mercola explained that one of the last straws was when a Bill Gates-funded “doctor” called on terrorists to personally attack Dr. Mercola for countering the pro-vaccine agenda of Gates and other medical fascists who have raked in obscene profits over the past year pushing masks, jabs and small business closures. Peter Hotez, president of the Gates-linked Sabin Vaccine Institute, recently put out a report called “Meeting the Challenge of Vaccine Hesitancy” that contains a call-to-action for “cyberwarfare experts” to wage war on people like Dr. Mercola who are teaching people to protect their health naturally and cheaply through nature, rather than unnaturally and expensively through Big Pharma.
[editor’s note: I continue to worry about people’s intolerance of other’s beliefs. In this case, there is no scientific evidence that vitamin D, zinc or other natural remedies help or hurt one’s ability to ward off a COVID infection. Only drugs that phamacuetical companies produce have any sort of scientific evidence.]
HEPA filters reduce respiratory aerosols produced during intense exercise – News-Medical
A pair of Mayo Clinic studies shed light on something that is typically difficult to see with the eye: respiratory aerosols. Such aerosol particles of varying sizes are a common component of breath, and they are a typical mode of transmission for respiratory viruses like COVID-19 to spread to other people and surfaces.
Researchers who conduct exercise stress tests for heart patients at Mayo Clinic found that exercising at increasing levels of exertion increased the aerosol concentration in the surrounding room. Then also found that a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) device effectively filtered out the aerosols and decreased the time needed to clear the air between patients.
COVID-19 Severity Starts in Normal BMI Range, Especially in Young – Medscape
The risk of severe outcomes with COVID-19 increases with excess weight in a linear manner beginning in normal body mass index ranges, with the effect apparently independent of obesity-related diseases such as diabetes and stronger among younger people and Black persons, new research shows.
“Even a small increase in body mass index above 23 kg/m is a risk factor for adverse outcomes after infection with SARS-CoV-2,” the authors reported.
“Excess weight is a modifiable risk factor and investment in the treatment of overweight and obesity, and long-term preventive strategies could help reduce the severity of COVID-19 disease,” they wrote.
The findings shed important new light in the ongoing efforts to understand COVID-19 effects, Krishnan Bhaskaran, PhD, said in an interview.
“These results confirm and add detail to the established links between overweight and obesity and COVID-19, and also add new information on risks among people with low BMI levels,” said Bhaskaran, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, who authored an accompanying editorial.
Obesity has been well established as a major risk factor for poor outcomes among people with COVID-19; however, less is known about the risk of severe outcomes over the broader spectrum of excess weight, and its relationship with other factors.
India G-7 Delegation Forced To Self-Isolate After Positive Coronavirus Tests – NPR
India’s top diplomat and his entourage have been forced to self-isolate, participating in a G-7 foreign ministers meeting only virtually – from hotel rooms near the venue in London – after at least two members of the Indian delegation tested positive for the coronavirus.
India is currently battling the world’s biggest COVID-19 wave, and is thus on the United Kingdom’s Red List, meaning travel from India into the U.K. is restricted. The rules stipulate that while regular Indians are barred from entering the U.K., diplomats may do so, but are required to self-isolate.
It appears that India’s minister of external affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, was granted an exception to that rule, because he has held several in-person meetings, including with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, since arriving in London on Monday.
British media reported that two members of Jaishankar’s delegation had since tested positive.
In a tweet, Jaishankar said he had been made aware of the exposure Tuesday evening. “As a measure of abundant caution and also out of consideration for others, I decided to conduct my engagements in the virtual mode,” he wrote. “That will be the case with the G7 Meeting today as well.”
Federal judge vacates CDC’s eviction moratorium – The Hill
A federal judge on Wednesday vacated a nationwide freeze on evictions that was put in place by federal health officials to help cash-strapped renters remain in their homes during the pandemic.
The ruling was a win for a coalition of property owners and realtors, who brought one of several challenges against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) eviction moratorium, which was first enacted under former President Trump and later extended through June.
In a 20-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich, who was appointed by Trump, ruled that the agency exceeded its authority with the temporary ban.
“The question for the Court is a narrow one: Does the Public Health Service Act grant the CDC the legal authority to impose a nationwide eviction moratorium? It does not,” Friedrich wrote.
A number of other judges have ruled on the eviction ban’s lawfulness, with landlords holding a slight advantage in their win-loss record against the federal government.
But while some judges have limited the scope of their rulings to apply only to the parties involved in the particular lawsuits before them, Friedrich rebuffed the federal government’s request that she narrow the effect of her decision, indicating its reach would be nationwide.
India’s top scientific adviser said on Wednesday the nation should brace for an “inevitable” third wave of coronavirus, as soaring infection rates grip the world’s second-most populous country.
“A phase three is inevitable, given the higher levels of circulating virus but it is not clear on what time scale this phase three will occur. We should prepare for new waves,” K VijayRaghavan, the Indian government’s principal scientific adviser, said at a press conference Wednesday.
He added: “Scientists of India and all over the world are working to anticipate these kinds of variants and act against them rapidly by early warning and developing modified tools. It’s an intense research program, happening in India and abroad.”
[editor’s note: also read Indian university projection estimates 50 million Covid-19 cases by mid-June]
Covid-19 cases will likely surge again in the U.S. as the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant takes hold across the country, peaking in May before sharply declining by July, according to new data released Wednesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The rise in Covid cases is expected as states relax pandemic prevention strategies for businesses, large-scale gatherings and schools, and the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the U.K., spreads more rapidly throughout the country, the CDC said in the report.
The agency projected the trajectory of the pandemic based on four different scenarios of vaccination rates and state reopenings. While the case numbers differed in each scenario, the general direction of the outbreak remained mostly the same in all four forecasts with cases surging in May before falling in July.
While Covid cases are expected to increase this month, hospitalizations and deaths will likely remain low nationally, the U.S. agency said, with cases expected to plummet by July as more Americans get vaccinated against the virus.
High vaccination coverage and compliance with pandemic safety measures “are essential to control COVID-19 and prevent surges in hospitalizations and deaths in the coming months,” federal health officials wrote in the report.
$100 as Incentive to Get a Shot? Experiment Suggests It Can Pay Off. – New York Times
A cash reward works best with Democrats, and relaxing safety guidelines seems to motivate Republicans, a survey study shows.
Reassuring public service announcements about the vaccine‘s safety and effectiveness have proliferated. But increasingly, people are realizing that it will take more than just information to sway the hesitant.
In recent randomized survey experiments by the U.C.L.A. Covid-19 Health and Politics Project, two seemingly strong incentives have emerged.
Roughly a third of the unvaccinated population said a cash payment would make them more likely to get a shot. This suggests that some governors may be on the right track; West Virginia’s governor, Jim Justice, for example, recently announced the state would give young people $100 bonds if they got an inoculation.
Similarly large increases in willingness to take vaccines emerged for those who were asked about getting a vaccine if doing so meant they wouldn’t need to wear a mask or social-distance in public, compared with a group that was told it would still have to do those things.
Study reveals no negative effect of SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 vaccination on male fertility – News-Medical
Researchers analyzed the sperm parameters of males undergoing fertility treatment and found no effect from the BNT162b2 mRNA severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine.
Several studies have found a negative impact of SARS-CoV-2 on sperm parameters. In addition, the gonads may also be vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem investigated the effect of the Pfizer/BioNTech BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine on male fertility and reported their results in a paper posted to the medRxiv* preprint server.
The researchers collected data from all patients in an in vitro fertilization center between February and March 2021 after vaccination had begun in Israel. The team reviewed the medical records of 43 vaccinated male patients and compared the data before vaccination and after about an average of 33 days after the first dose of vaccination.
They found no difference in the various sperm parameters they analyzed, such as sperm volume and sperm concentration. The patients included those with male infertility and normosperm.
These initial results indicate no negative effect of mRNA vaccination on male fertility.
The following are foreign headlines with hyperlinks to the posts
Haiti is a poor and crowded place, but it still has a very low COVID-19 death rate.
Students from India living in the U.S. are raising money to help with care for COVID-19 patients in their home country.
COVID-19 Reaches Mount Everest As Nepal Struggles With Record Infections
Thailand Sets Out to Vaccinate 3K Per Day in Country’s Largest Slum
Canada authorizes Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 12 to 15
Sri Lanka imposes lockdowns across more areas
Osaka nearly out of hospital beds for its most serious Covid-19 patients
Seychelles sees uptick in Covid-19 cases despite having vaccinated 85% of population
The following additional national and state headlines with hyperlinks to the posts
Pfizer is already planning to give people booster shots of its vaccine, with the elderly and those with underlying health conditions likely to be first in line.
Over 56% of the adult U.S. population have received their first COVID shot, with 41% fully vaccinated, according to the latest CDC data.
Will the Novavax coronavirus vaccine be approved or authorized for emergency use in the U.S.? The American Medical Association developed CPT codes for it, just in case.
Fear of forced vaccinations is causing some people to move from one state to another.
Judge Orders Hospital to Give COVID Patient Ivermectin
Hospitalizations and deaths should decline sharply by Independence Day if the nationwide vaccination program remains strong and community mitigation efforts are followed, according to a federal report released Wednesday.
CDC’s Best Scenario for U.S. COVID Deaths is up to 300 a Week by July’s End
The Facebook Oversight Board on Wednesday upheld the social media company’s decision to suspend Donald Trump from its platform after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. But it also called the move “inappropriate” based on the company’s own policies, which do not allow for indefinite suspension. Read more…
Animal testing is cruel and often unnecessary. But the FDA forces drugmakers to do it
Robust passive and active immunity found in infants born to COVID-19 positive mothers
More than 186,000 restaurants applied for federal relief in two days, Biden says
Average daily pace of Covid-19 vaccine doses reported administered down 20% from last week
CDC data suggests variant first discovered in New York does not lead to more severe infection
Today’s Posts On Econintersect Showing Impact Of The Pandemic With Hyperlinks
April 2021 ISM and Markit Services Surveys Remain Well Into Expansion
April 2021 ADP Employment Grew 742,000
Infographic Of The Day: Revenues In Fiscal Year 2020
Are Graphene-Coated Face Masks A COVID-19 Miracle – Or Another Health Risk?
Detecting Rare Blood Clots Was A Win, But US Vaccine Safety System Still Has Gaps
Indians Are Forced To Change Rituals For Their Dead As COVID-19 Rages Through Cities And Villages
Warning to Readers
The amount of politically biased articles on the internet continues. And studies and opinions of the experts continue to contradict other studies and expert opinions. Honestly, it is difficult to believe anything anymore.
I assemble this coronavirus update daily – sifting through the posts on the internet. I try to avoid politically slanted posts (mostly from CNN, New York Times, and the Washington Post) and can usually find unslanted posts on that subject from other sources on the internet. I wait to publish posts on subjects that I cannot validate across several sources. But after all this extra work, I do not know if I have conveyed the REAL facts. It is my job to provide information so that you have the facts necessary – and then it is up to readers to draw conclusions.
Analyst Opinion of Coronavirus Data
There are several takeaways that need to be understood when viewing coronavirus statistical data:
- The global counts are suspect for a variety of reasons including political. Even the U.S. count has issues as it is possible that as much as half the population has had coronavirus and was asymptomatic. It would be a far better metric using a random sampling of the population weekly. In short, we do not understand the size of the error in the tracking numbers.
- Just because some of the methodology used in aggregating the data in the U.S. is flawed – as long as the flaw is uniformly applied – you establish a baseline. This is why it is dangerous to compare two countries as they likely use different methodologies to determine who has (and who died) from coronavirus.
- COVID-19 and the flu are different but can have similar symptoms. COVID-19 so far is much more deadly than the flu. [click here to compare symptoms]
- From an industrial engineering point of view, one can argue that it is best to flatten the curve only to the point that the health care system is barely able to cope. This solution only works if-and-only-if one can catch this coronavirus once and develops immunity. In the case of COVID-19, herd immunity may need to be in the 80% to 85% range. WHO warns that few have developed antibodies to COVID-19 when recovering from COVID-19. Herd immunity does not look like an option without immunization although there is now a discussion of whether T-Cells play a part in immunity [which means one might have immunity without antibodies]
- Older population countries will have a significantly higher death rate as there is relatively few hospitalizations and deaths in younger age groups..
- There are at least 8 strains of the coronavirus. California and New York may have a deadlier strain imported from Europe, compared to less deadly viruses elsewhere in the United States.
What we do or do not know about the coronavirus [actually there is little scientifically proven information]. Most of our knowledge is anecdotal, from studies with limited subjects, or from studies without peer review.
- How many people have been infected as many do not show symptoms?
- Masks do work. Unfortunately, early in the pandemic, many health experts – in the U.S. and around the world – decided that the public could not be trusted to hear the truth about masks. Instead, the experts spread a misleading message, discouraging the use of masks.
- Current thinking is that we develop at least 12 months of immunity from further COVID infection.
- The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have an effectiveness rate of about 95 percent after two doses. That is on par with the vaccines for chickenpox and measles. The 95 percent number understates the effectiveness as it counts anyone who came down with a mild case of Covid-19 as a failure.
- To what degree do people who never develop symptoms contribute to transmission? Research early in the pandemic suggested that the rate of asymptomatic infections could be as high as 81%. But a meta-analysis, which included 13 studies involving 21,708 people, calculated the rate of asymptomatic presentation to be 17%.
- The accuracy of rapid testing is questioned – and the more accurate test results are not being given in a timely manner.
- Can children widely spread coronavirus? [current thinking is that they are a minor source of the pandemic spread]
- Why have some places avoided big coronavirus outbreaks – and others hit hard?
- Air conditioning contributes to the pandemic spread.
- It appears that there is increased risk of infection and mortality for those living in larger occupancy households.
- Male patients have almost three times the odds of requiring intensive treatment unit (ITU) admission compared to females.
- Outdoor activities seem to be a lower risk than indoor activities.
Treatments with solid scientific support:
- Dexamethasone
- Proning, or turning someone on their stomach
- Remdesivir
- Baricitinib
Treatments with potential but limited evidence:
- ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
- fluvoxamine
- Cyclosporine
- Famotidine
- Intravenous immunoglobulin
- Ivermectin
- Interferons
Drugs shown to be ineffective:
- The combination of lopinavir-ritonavir
- Hydroxychloroquine
- Insulin
- High dose zinc and vitamin C
- Convalescent plasma
- Monoclonal antibodies
- Tocilizumab
- Anti-coagulants
- A current scientific understanding of the way the coronavirus works can be found [here].
There is now a vaccine available – the questions remain:
- will there be any permanent side effects that will appear months from now,
- how long immunity will last [we can currently say we do not know if it will last more than 4 months],
- there is no solid evidence yet the vaccine will block transmission
Heavy breakouts of coronavirus have hit farmworkers. Farmworkers are essential to the food supply. They cannot shelter at home. Consider:
- they have high rates of respiratory disease [occupational hazard]
- they travel on crowded buses chartered by their employers
- few have health insurance
- they cannot social distance and live two to four to a room – and they eat together
- some reports say half are undocumented
- they are low paid and cannot afford not to work – so they will go to work sick
- they do not have access to sanitation when working
- a coronavirus outbreak among farmworkers can potentially shutter entire farm
The bottom line is that COVID-19 so far has been shown to be much more deadly than the data on the flu. Using CDC data, the flu has a mortality rate between 0.06 % and 0.11 % Vs. the coronavirus which to date has a mortality rate of 4 % [the 4% is the average of overall statistics – however in the last few months it has been hovering around 1.0%] – which makes it between 10 and 80 times more deadly. The reason for ranges:
Because influenza surveillance does not capture all cases of flu that occur in the U.S., CDC provides these estimated ranges to better reflect the larger burden of influenza.
There will be a commission set up after this pandemic ends to find fault [it is easy to find fault when a once-in-a-lifetime event occurs] and to produce recommendations for the next time a pandemic happens. Those that hate President Trump will conclude the virus is his fault.
Resources:
- Get the latest public health information from CDC: https://www.coronavirus.gov .
- Get the latest research from NIH: https://www.nih.gov/coronavirus.
- Find NCBI SARS-CoV-2 literature, sequence, and clinical content: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sars-cov-2/.
- List of studies: https://icite.od.nih.gov/covid19/search/#search:searchId=5ee124ed70bb967c49672dad
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