U.S. coronavirus death toll tops 300,000 on the day vaccine arrives

[riversedge]

Source: cbsnews




By Victoria Albert

Updated on: December 14, 2020 / 8:40 PM / CBS News

More than 300,000 people have now died from the coronavirus in the United States, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The milestone comes as the first Americans are receiving Pfizer's newly authorized coronavirus vaccine, which the nation hopes will turn the tables in the fight against the virus.

The vaccine's arrival comes at a time of crisis. The U.S. has set records for COVID-19 hospitalizations eight days in a row, and the number of patients requiring intensive care is up 80% from a month ago.

In California's Los Angeles County, new COVID-19 cases are up 370% in just one month — and there are no ICU beds left in the state's Central Valley. In New Jersey, which currently has the highest COVID-19 death rate in the nation, Governor Phil Murphy warned that the coming weeks "are going to be hell."

Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned Sunday that coronavirus infections will likely peak in January, due in part to Americans ignoring warnings from health officials and traveling during the holiday season.

"The pressure is going to be on the health care system, and we need to keep the health care system from getting maxed out," Gottlieb said in an interview with "Face the Nation." "They're not going to see peak-burden on hospital resources probably until mid-January, late January."..............................

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-coronavirus-death-toll-300000/

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7 hours ago -
U.S. surpasses 300,000 coronavirus deaths

https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-covid-deaths-us-3b926c93-ee13-4c78-b11f-ead8b12de7f5.html


The U.S. topped 300,000 coronavirus deaths on Monday, per Johns Hopkins data.

The big picture: The U.S. is averaging 2,427 deaths a day — 300 more fatalities per day than during the pandemic's initial peak in the spring, per the COVID Tracking Project. It took less than three months for the U.S. to record another 100,000 deaths.......................................
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The bottom line: If the U.S. death rate had matched that of other wealthy countries, between about 55,000 and 215,000 Americans would still be alive, an October analysis by Columbia University's National Center for Disaster Preparedness found..............................................


https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-covid-deaths-us-3b926c93-ee13-4c78-b11f-ead8b12de7f5.html
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Link to tweet

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Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins; Chart: Axios Visuals

[SunSeeker]

1. It's way more then 300k. There's up to a 6 week lag in some states' reporting.

These numbers don't even reflect the Thanksgiving surge. The numbers in January will be even more brutal.

[Aussie105]

2. It will get worse before it gets better.

95% of the population will need to be vaccinated and given 2 or 3 weeks for the immune response to kick in, before transmission is significantly slowed.

The rollout of the vaccine to that number of people will take time, as it requires 2 doses, and time taken for production and distribution.

Numbers of infected and deaths will peak and then slowly taper off (and it will take years), so the cheering is still way too early.

I'm not going to predict the number of total deaths and people recovered but are left with permanent damage, because it's too depressing.