U.S. passes 900,000 dead from COVID-19, a pandemic update

I know I told my readers "Stay tuned for the first Sunday entertainment feature of February" at the end of PBS NewsHour on U.S. death rate, long COVID, vaccines for preschoolers, and coronavirus in deer, a pandemic update, but I missed including a grim but important milestone in the pandemic, the US COVID-19 death toll tops 900,000 as reported by ABC News.*

Nearly two years since the first known COVID-19 death in the U.S., the country reports approximately 15.7% of the world's virus-related deaths.

It's only been a little more than six weeks since U.S. passed 800,000 dead from COVID-19, a pandemic update, just a week longer then it took to go from 750,000 dead to 800,000 dead, so the death rate nearly doubled during the past month-and-one-half. I wish I could say I were surprised, but I know better.

Omicron infects more people, appears to evade immune responses more often, and can re-infect people. The bottom line is that a smaller proportion of a much larger number can still result in more hospitalizations and death.

That's exactly what's happened and is still happening. Sometimes I wish I weren't right.

That's the bad news. KPIX CBS SF Bay Area highlighted the good news in As U.S. COVID Deaths Top 900,000 Omicron Cases Plummet.

With the highly-contagious omicron variant retreating and hospitalizations down, there's renewed hope this COVID surge might be the last. Michael George reports.

I'm not surprised by Omicron cases dropping, because that's what this strain did in South Africa. Just the same, reported cases are still higher than they were before Omicron arrived and deaths are a lagging indicator. Mortality will likely stay high for weeks.

Speaking of mortality, that's the focus of New4JAX/WJXT's US surpasses 900K COVID-19 deaths.

Johns Hopkins University reported that as of Friday, more than 900,000 have died from COVID-19 in the United States. The country met the grim milestone two years after the first cluster of the virus was reported in China.

One million dead from the pandemic by April. I hope that won't happen, but I'm afraid it will. When it does, I'll report it here.  In the meantime, stay safe and healthy.

*I'll make up for it later this week, as nominees for the Razzies and Oscars will be announced tomorrow and Tuesday, respectively. Stay tuned.