This total of five million deaths is most certainly an undercount, as it only includes deaths that have been confirmed to have been due to a COVID-19 infection; it does not include undiagnosed COVID-19 fatalities or deaths caused indirectly by the pandemic, such as lockdown-related suicides or individuals that were unable to receive medical care for other ailments due to overtaxed medical facilities.
It is also important to bear in mind that many regions around the globe do not have the infrastructure or resources to report local deaths and their respective causes in a timely manner—if any report is made at all—so many of the dead in less affluent countries won’t be counted for some time to come.
The United States alone is fast approaching 750,000 dead—that’s three quarters of a million souls, far surpassing the death toll of any war the US has been involved in, including the nation’s bloodiest conflict, the American Civil War, a conflict that caused more than 650,000 deaths. To put that number further into perspective, the Civil War lasted for four years; the pandemic has killed 100,000 more Americans than that in just 20 months.
One peculiar aspect of this pandemic is that the wealthier nations appear to have suffered a disproportionately higher death toll than less affluent countries; although Brazil, Britain, the European Union and the United States only account for one-eighth of the world’s population, they represent nearly half of all reported COVID-19 deaths.
“What’s uniquely different about this pandemic is it hit hardest the high-resource countries,” remarked Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, director of ICAP, a global health center at Columbia University. “That’s the irony of COVID-19.”
This apparent paradox appears to be due to wealthier nations having larger populations of elderly individuals, nursing home residents and cancer survivors, demographics that are more susceptible to the more serious effects of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus; conversely, the populations of poorer nations tend to consist of younger individuals, a group less likely to contract serious forms of the disease.
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Thank you for update. But I want to check w/ you: Instead of saying, “750,000 dead, that’s one quarter of a million souls,” did you intend to say “three quarters of a million souls” ? … the larger problem is that these numbers are now snowballing so quickly it truly is mind-boggling the quantities of deaths and infections we are approaching. For example, on one of the statistical websites, I saw a very large number of total COVID-19 infections listed — I forget the exact number — but it started me wondering if the world’s total number of COVID-19 infections will soon exceed one billion? Gaaah. *Horrible.* If so, and *if* the pandemic goes long, as some are finally starting to wonder about, could we be one day looking back at 1 billion *dead*? If so, the chief accelerator could be the much faster pace of global transportation since the 1918 pandemic, not just COVID cruises, but airplanes. Luckily, space travel is not yet affected (stringent quarantines now in place), but even Antarctica had a COVID fight on its hands for awhile.
My theories, which I am about to summarize for Peter J. D’Adamo, ND, via Twitter, about so-called “First World” vulnerability to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, include a lack of fiber, which some MDs are now beginning to realize helps prime the human immune system, really. Etcetera.
Death estimates are an enormous problem — look at the social chaos in India from the COVID-19 wave there, especially after the far more transmissible delta variant got going. Indian-born US physicians like Ashish Jha, MD, plus CNN’s Sanjay Gupta, MD, who has many relatives in India, say the official COVID-19 death toll in India is a vast undercount, perhaps by a factor of 3. And most bodies are evidently burned in funeral rites, so that leaves no graves to count.
Last suggestion — change tag name “preventative” to “preventive” or use both if absolutely necessary. It was just in the last 5 years that it became at all acceptable to use preventative as a word … the global public health community still rejects that idea, of course. So if you want to get anyone to return your phone calls on that subject, use “preventive.” If you use the “word” preventative, they’ll laugh at you if you’re lucky … if you’re unlucky, they’ll hang up on you.” Public health people are of course polite, but now that we’re in the middle of a pandemic whose end point is completely unknown, they are truly overwhelmed with work, with no end in sight … so if they are rude … or delayed in getting back to you, don’t take it personally.
Suggestion — change tag name “preventative” to “preventive” or use both if absolutely necessary. It was just in the last 5 years that it became at all acceptable to use preventative as a word … the global public health community still rejects that idea, of course. So if you want to get anyone to return your phone calls on that subject, use “preventive.” If you use the “word” preventative, they’ll laugh at you if you’re lucky … if you’re unlucky, they’ll hang up on you. Public health people are of course polite, but now that we’re in the middle of a pandemic whose end point is completely unknown, they are truly overwhelmed with work, with no end in sight … so if they are rude … or delayed in getting back to you, don’t take it personally. Next suggestion: When you said “one quarter of a million,” did you mean to say “three quarters of a million?” Further, on the issue of why the “First World” countries’ residents are dropping like flies in this pandemic, the 1st thing I think of the lack of fiber in the diets of those residents. The key there is that fiber is an important activator of the human immune system.
When you report “fast approaching 750,000 dead” did you mean to say *three* quarters of a million souls? The chaotic global response to this pandemic so far leaves me wondering if at the end of 2030, our world will be looking at a total of one billion dead.
For the wealthier nations whose populations are vulnerable to the more serious effects of SARS-CoV-2, they all consume a much higher proportion of processed food, which is known to have most natural fiber removed. Recently, however, the contribution of dietary fiber toward a strong immune system has been discovered.
On Thursday, Nov. 4th, our family was at UCLA Santa Monica Hospital ER, which is overflowing with COVID-19 patients. During the two hours we were there, three ambulances arrived with more COVID-19 patients, one of whom was a woman in labor. Yet there is almost no press coverage of how impacted all California hospitals have been in Fall 2021.
Whoops, you’re right, I did mean three-quarters! It’s… not an easy number to wrap one’s head around.
And the news certainly does seem to have gone quiet in regards to what’s actually going on. I guess they figured it was hurting their ratings…
yes there is not enough coverage anywhere and I certainly had wished for a more active presence of some handpicked leader to encourage consistency of policy from state to state to end this thing -it is actually simple infection control JEEEESus!!! I am a Progressive who supports Biden and I applaud the amazing amt. of work done to steady the country- but Covid needs more reporting – some might be discouraged to hear it and i am discouraged to live with it. It ain’t that complicated as there is only like a 2 week window totally that it can live anywhere outside the body and that is the far side of it. 2 dead in this family and to Elizabeth Warren.- $30,000. She will know what I mean
If you read what “Traveller” posted on the Dreamland site just recently, James Gilliland will not allow vaccinated people onto his property!
Several of my former workmates from clinical practice (ED) got CV19 early on. 2 of which now suffer from Long term Covid implications to include 1 with Moderate MV regurgitation and the other with CHF and low ejection fraction of 35%.
Any one who refuses the vaccine beyond certain heath implications is …. , well a fool who will most likely take up an ICU bed and prevent a common pathology from treatment. I have no more words I am exhausted from it all.
no, I missed all that- let us hope that James will stay there- on his OWN property. I have surely had more than enough time on mine right when I hoped to start a new chapter of living which has been a challenge that I could never have expected lol. All the people around me have not been considerate to mask and even the ONE Vet practice here does not mask or vaccinate- and you became a DOCTOR because…..