Co-factors in 75% of dead: CDC

An “overwhelming” number of the Americans who died from COVID-19 had several pre-existing conditions, according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky estimated in a recent “Good Morning America” interview that “the overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities. So really, these are people who were unwell to begin with.”

After some people found her comments insensitive, Walensky stressed in a tweet the need to “protect people with comorbidities from severe #COVID19.”

“Dr. Walensky did not intend comments in a recent television appearance to be hurtful toward those with disabilities,” a CDC spokesman said.

“She is deeply concerned and cares about the health and wellbeing of people with disabilities and those with medical conditions who have been impacted by COVID-19.”

In a Sunday appearance on Fox News, Walensky said she couldn’t say exactly how many of the more than 836,000 COVID deaths can be attributed to comorbidities, but insisted that data “will be coming.”

The nation’s seven-day average for new COVID cases has doubled in the past 10 days to 704,000, with the fast-spreading Omicron variant contributing to the surge. The United States has averaged more than 500,000 a day for the past six days.

New York statewide, COVID hospitalizations grew to more than 12,000 patients last week, with 42% of those admitted for other reasons, roughly the same percentage as the prior week, with 54,000 cases and 135 deaths.