That’s the conclusion from Woolf et al. (2020) in JAMA this previous week. The authors look at charges of COVID-19 mortality within the US between March and October 2020 and examine them with different main causes of demise from March to October 2018. We see that COVID-19 is presently the third main reason behind demise within the US, and that doesn’t bear in mind the current spike in circumstances between November and December.
As everyone knows, COVID-19 is especially harmful for the aged. The mortality price for these aged 85 and above from COVID-19 is about 100 occasions larger than these aged 35-44.
This follows on worse information {that a} new, extra transmissible COVID-19 mutation might now be shifting all through the UK. As NPR studies:
The brand new mutation might be as much as 70% extra transmissible than earlier variants of the virus, Susan Hopkins of Public Well being England informed the BBC. This variant was first recognized in the midst of October from a pattern taken in September, Hopkins mentioned.
“In early December, whereas we have been attempting to know why [cases in] Kent and Medway continued to extend regardless of the nationwide restrictions, we discovered a cluster that was rising very quick.”
…Whereas the brand new variant appears to be extra infectious, scientists say there isn’t a proof that it results in a extra extreme sickness, in response to Vivek Murthy, who President-elect Joe Biden has introduced as his nominee for U.S. Surgeon Basic. “There’s no cause to imagine that the vaccines which have been developed is not going to be efficient in opposition to this virus as properly,” Murthy mentioned on NBC’s Meet the Press.
In brief, it’s time to ramp up vaccine manufacturing and get folks vaccinated!