COVID-19 is leading cause of death in US
COVID-19 has surpassed heart disease and cancer as the leading cause of death in the U.S., according to an editorial published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University make the point that the surge in COVID-19 fatalities, from a weekly average of 826 daily deaths in November to more than 2,400 now, has turned the illness caused by the coronavirus into the nation’s No.1 killer. Heart disease and cancer averaged about 1,700 and 1,600 daily deaths, respectively.
Wednesday’s 3,656 COVID-19 deaths were the most recorded in any day of the pandemic. The U.S. has 17 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 308,000 deaths.
“It’s been a long time since an infectious disease was the leading cause of death for the whole country,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, lead author of the editorial and director emeritus of VCU’s Center on Society and Health. “And it’s a tragic milestone we could’ve prevented.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. set other records, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data.
It was the worst week of cases: 1,510,106 were recorded as of Wednesday. At that rate, 150 Americans test positive every minute.
It was also the worst week for deaths: 17,988 people died during the seven-day period ending Wednesday, surpassing the record set just the day before. At that pace an American is reported dead about every 34 seconds.
France’s president tests positive
President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for COVID-19, the country’s presidential palace, known as the Élysée, said in a statement Thursday.
Macron is the latest major world leader to become infected with the coronavirus after President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Johnson was gravely ill with the disease before recovering. Ambrose Dlamini, prime minister of Eswatini, the tiny monarchy that neighbors South Africa, is the only world leader who has died from COVID-19. He was 52.
Presidents and prime ministers of Armenia, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras and Russia have also been infected. A senior aide to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari died of the virus in April. Dozens of White House officials and associates have tested positive. U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt tested positive Wednesday.
Also Wednesday, the U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came into contact with a person who tested positive and was quarantining.
Twitter cracks down on vaccine misinformation
With coronavirus vaccine misinformation spreading via social media at an alarming rate, Twitter said it would remove claims that vaccines intentionally cause harm or are unnecessary, as well as debunked conspiracy theories about the adverse effects of vaccines. The policy shift is slated to begin next week.
Researchers warn that opposition to the vaccines is resonating, not just with fringe anti-vaccine communities but with swaths of mainstream America, whose faith in science and government has been badly shaken by the pandemic.
“In the context of a global pandemic, vaccine misinformation presents a significant and growing public health challenge,” Twitter said in a blog post. “Starting next week, we will prioritize the removal of the most harmful misleading information, and during the coming weeks, begin to label Tweets that contain potentially misleading information about the vaccines.”
Other headlines
h California legislators will consider a new bill that would give farmworkers, grocery store employees and other food sector workers priority for getting the COVID-19 vaccine and rapid testing.
h New York City-run hospitals canceled elective surgeries as of Tuesday in anticipation of increased hospitalizations because of COVID-19, Dr. Mitchell Katz, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, said Thursday. There were almost 11,000 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday across New York, with hospitalizations reaching over 6,100, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced.
h California on Wednesday reported more than 53,000 new coronavirus cases and 293 deaths. Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said two people are dying every hour in the county. “We’re experiencing an explosive and very deadly surge,” she said.
h Two health care workers in Alaska had reactions to the Pfizer vaccine, similar to the two workers in the U.K. One of the Alaska workers was still hospitalized for observation Wednesday while the other has recovered.
h The NFL plans to honor health care workers by inviting workers who have been vaccinated to attend the Super Bowl in Tampa as a thank-you for being on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic.