With U.S. hospitals overtaxed by COVID-19, huge numbers died from lack of healthcare access

[marmar]

With U.S. hospitals overtaxed by COVID-19, huge numbers died from lack of healthcare access
A vast increase in the number of so-called excess deaths suggest the US healthcare system has fundamentally failed

By BOB HENNELLY
APRIL 30, 2021 1:10PM


(Salon) In calculating its human toll, a pandemic is similar to a war. The most precise way public health researchers can get a handle on the impact of something like COVID-19 is to compare the number of total deaths recorded in a specific place during the pandemic with death tallies from prior years.

That analysis will yield a figure known as "excess deaths" — which simply means deaths above and beyond what would normally be expected.

....(snip)....

The importance of tabulating such a dark statistic is twofold: its record-breaking nature is due to both to our largely for-profit healthcare system, as well as government incompetence. Indeed, for decades our government ignored the warnings from public health experts that the U.S. was not properly prepared for the pandemic we are living through now.

....(snip)....

As the city, state and federal governments all attempt to regroup after the death of more than a half-million and the infection of well over 30 million, Dr. Katz believes policy makers would be well advised to consult the data not just on COVID deaths per se, but on excess mortality rates referenced by neighborhoods.

"Absolutely, and I think we have some sense already of the excess mortality that occurred both among people who had COVID and didn't come forward for testing," he said. "Some of those people were undocumented immigrants or people who were very low income and feared coming forward to a hospital. ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/04/30/with-us-hospitals-overtaxed-by-covid-19-huge-numbers-died-from-lack-of-healthcare-access/

[I_UndergroundPanther]

1. I know I was scared to go

To the hospital .Still a little cautious even though I am vaccinated.

Almost went to the psych unit this past summer.

When my depression kicked.

And trumpism was running rampant. Was scared trump would destroy hud or cut my ssi down to nothing .

The anxiety I felt in the bad old days with that orange monster squatting in the Whitehouse was nuts.

Luckily it eased up after about 2 weeks and the suicidal thoughts stopped.

But if the thoughts didn't stop I think I still wouldn't have gone in.

I think it stopped due to med adjustment and the vote. I wanted to vote for Biden that fall and that was my reason to not die then. As well as my sweetie Othello.

How many with mental illness crisis ended up dying from fear of sitting in the ER. Or going to a psych unit with a bunch of strangers?

[wnylib]

2. The article also mentions deaths that are

sometimes forgotten when counting the ones caused by covid-19. They are the deaths of people who had a life-threatening crisis during the time when hospitals were overwhelmed by covid patients.

If you have a car accident, acute appendicitis attack, heart attack, ectopic pregnancy, or other medical emergency requiring immediate treatment, you can't get it when even the halls of a hospital are filled with beds of acutely ill people in a pandemic. What are the numbers of people who died in those situations?

Then there are the people who died of covid but had never been tested for it. Their cause of death was given as flu or pneumonia.

If we could add up all those deaths, the actual number of people who died because of covid would be much higher.