The US population was only a third of what it is today a century ago, which means that the flu has made a much larger and more deadly swath through the country.
Published: September 21, 2021 4:30 PM |
Last updated: September 21, 2021 4:30 p.m.
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WASHINGTON: COVID-19 has now killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 Spanish flu, about 675,000.
The US population was only a third of what it is today a century ago Population, which means that the flu has made a much larger and more deadly swath through the country.
But the COVID-19 crisis is in any case a colossal tragedy in itself, especially given the incredible advances in scientific knowledge since then and the fact that currently available vaccines are not being used optimally.
Howard Markel of the University of Michigan said about the possibility of vaccinating all eligible people now.
Instead, scientists hope it is It is a mild seasonal mistake, as vaccinations and repeated infections boost human immunity.
« We hope it will turn out like a cold, but there are no guarantees, » de said r Biologist Rustom Antia from Emory University, who suggests an optimistic scenario in which this could happen in a few years.
For now, the pandemic has the US and other parts of the world firmly under control.
During the Delta’s fueled surge in infections may have peaked, U.S. deaths averaged over 1,900 a day, the highest since early March, and the country’s total tolls topped 675,000 on Monday, according to the Johns Hopkins University guided census. although the real number is believed to be higher.
Winter could bring another spike, as the influential University of Washington model predicts about 100,000 more Americans will die from COVID-19 by Jan. 1 which would bring the total US toll to 776,000.
The pandemic influenza of 1918-19 killed 50 million people worldwide at a time when the world was a quarter of today’s population.
The number of Spanish flu death toll in the US is a rough estimate given the incomplete records of the era and poor scientific understanding of the cause of the disease and the immune systems of more and more people are learning to attack it.
As they grow up, the children would carry the memory of the immune response, so the coronavirus when they old and vulnerable would be no more dangerous than cold viruses.
The same goes for vaccinated teenagers today: Your immune system would be strengthened by the injections and light infections.
« The important thing is whether the infections are serious. » Something similar happened with the H1N1 flu virus, the culprit of the 1918-19 pandemic.
While between 12,000 and 61,000 Americans die from the flu every year, it is, on average, a seasonal and manageable problem.
In In many ways, the 1918-19 flu, mistakenly known as Spanish flu because it was widespread for the first time in Spain, was worse.
Spread by the mobility of World War I, it killed in large numbers young, healthy adults.
There was no vaccine to slow it down, and there were no antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections.
Markel said he was consistently amazed at the extent of the disorder that the Pandemic brought on the planet.
« I was overwhelmed by the size of the quarantines, » said Markel, « and since then I’ve been overwhelmed to the nth degree. »
Just under 64% of the US population have received at least one dose of the vaccine, with rates in the states ranging from a high of about 77% in Vermont and Massachusetts to a lows of about 46% to 49% in Idaho, Wyoming, West Virginia and Mississippi.
According to Our World in Data have worldwide approximately 43% of the population receive at least one dose, with some African countries just starting to give their first injections.
« We know all pandemics are over, » said Dr. Jeremy Brown, director of emergency care research at the National Institutes of Health, who wrote a book on influenza.
COVID-19 could have been far less fatal in the US if more people had been vaccinated faster, “and we have Still have the opportunity to reverse it, « said Brown.
The current vaccines are working very well at preventing serious illness and death from the previously exposed variants of the virus.
It will be critical for scientists to make sure the constantly mutating virus hasn’t changed enough to bypass vaccines or cause serious illness in unvaccinated children, Antia said.
New York City will begin weekly, random COVID-19 tests of unvaccinated Students in the largest school district in the country to detect outbreaks in classrooms more quickly.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this Monday, the day after the teachers’ union of the city of de Blasio sent a letter calling for weekly tests instead of bi-weekly tests in the district with around one million students.
The mayor also announced a change to the quarantine rules for schools that no longer requires unvaccinated students to be quarantined at home when masked and at least 3 feet away from someone who tests positive for the coronavirus.
De Blasio said the changes followed U.S. guidelines American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and would prevent students from missing important class times.
Changes come after the first full week of the school year, in which nearly 900 classrooms, including those in charter schools, are in 1,876 schools of the city has been closed in whole or in part due to reports of positive COVID-19 cases.
To this Another day is the deadline for teachers and public school staff in the city to get at least their first vaccination of the COVID-19 vaccine as part of a citywide school mandate.
Unlike other school districts, New York City is not offering distance learning this school year despite concerns about the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant.
De Blasio has said that children need to go back to school for their mental and physical health and social development.
New York also requires vaccinations for student athletes and coaches in « high-risk sports » such as soccer, basketball and wrestling.De Blasio said Monday that, despite Pfizer’s announcement on Monday, that he will be using his COVID-19 vaccine for children works between the ages of 5 and 11 and will apply for US approval for that age group, yet no broader vaccine requirements for all eligible students in Betrac ht pulls.
“The goal is to bring our children to school for the foreseeable future. The best way to do this is to make all children welcome and at the same time keep working to improve the vaccination level, « he said.
» I don’t want children to be excluded. I want to invite children and then work constantly to get them vaccinated. «
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