‘Soul-crushing’: U.S. deaths from virus highest in months
COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have climbed to an average of more than 1,900 a day for the first time since early March, with experts saying the virus is preying largely on a distinct group: 71 million unvaccinated Americans.
The increasingly lethal turn has filled hospitals, complicated the start of the school year, delayed the return to offices and demoralized health care workers.
“It is devastating,” said Dr. Dena Hubbard, a pediatrician in the Kansas City, Mo., area who has cared for babies delivered prematurely by cesarean section in a last-ditch effort to save their mothers, some of whom died. For health workers, the deaths, combined with misinformation and disbelief about the virus, have been “heart-wrenching, soulcrushing.”
Twenty-two people died in one week alone at CoxHealth hospitals in the Springfield, Mo., area, a level almost as high as Chicago. West Virginia has had more deaths in the first three weeks of September — 340 — than in the previous three months combined. Georgia is averaging 125 dead per day, more than California or other more populous states.
“I’ve got to tell you, a guy has got to wonder if we are ever going to see the end of it or not,” said Collin Follis, the coroner in Missouri’s Madison County.
The nation was stunned in December when it was witnessing 3,000 deaths a day. But that was when almost no one was vaccinated.
Now, nearly 64 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. And yet, average deaths per day have climbed 40 percent over the past two weeks, from 1,387 to 1,947, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Health experts say the vast majority of the hospitalized and dead have been unvaccinated. While some vaccinated people have suffered breakthrough infections, those tend to be mild.
The number of vaccine-eligible Americans who have yet to get a shot has been put at more than 70 million.
“There is a very real risk you’ll end up in the hospital or even in the obituary pages,” Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, chief medical officer for the Ohio Department of Health, said to the unvaccinated. “Don’t become a statistic when there is a simple, safe and effective alternative to go out today and get vaccinated.”
Tuesday brought a dose of good news on that front, with Johnson & Johnson announcing that a second shot of its vaccine boosts protection against symptomatic and severe COVID-19.
“It’s very exciting news,” said Vanderbilt University Medical Center infectious diseases and preventive medicine professor William Schaffner, though he cautioned that the data must be reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration before recommendations can be made.
“The people who received J&J have been a little concerned that they’ve been left in the shade when it comes to repeat vaccination,” Schaffner said, adding that the new results suggest those vaccine recipients might “expect a booster in their future.”