According to the Washington Post website on November 28, the death case of COVID-19 is inclined to the elderly, which once again raises doubts about "acceptable loss" in the United States.
According to the report, although President Biden once said that the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States was "over", John Felton, an official of the Huangshi County Health Department in Billings, Montana, thought that the pandemic was not over, but was different from before.
Now, this is a plague of the elderly, and more than ever before.
In October, Felton's team recorded 6 deaths caused by COVID-19. Their ages: one case is over 60 years old, one case is over 70 years old, two cases are over 80 years old, and two cases are over 90 years old.
Felton said that as most people continue to move forward, they must recognize that the vulnerable elderly are still suffering relentlessly.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on average, more than 300 people still die of COVID-19 every day, most of them are elderly people over 65 years old. Although this is far less than the 2000 deaths per day at the peak of the Delta strain, it is still two to three times the death rate of influenza - which has again triggered the debate about what is "acceptable loss".
The elderly in the United States have always been the hardest hit group during the COVID-19 crisis, but this trend has become more obvious now.
The New York Times reporter's analysis of CDC data shows that today, nearly 90% of COVID-19 deaths are among the elderly over 65 years old, which is the highest proportion so far.
Some epidemiologists and demographers predict that the mortality rate of the elderly, people with other diseases and the poor is far higher than their proportion in the population. This trend will continue, which will lead to a sharp question: how do Americans choose or reject in the pursuit of normality - and who will be sacrificed.
For example, Matthew Liao, a professor of bioethics, philosophy and public health at New York University, believes that while keeping the economy open, it is possible to actively carry out vaccination campaigns nationwide and require wearing masks in hospitals and nursing homes. But he said the American leadership decided not to do so. This worried him.
In an open letter published in the British Medical Journal on October 7, more than 10 experts, including associate professor Greg Gonsalves of Yale University School of Public Health, emphasized that "the pandemic will not end at the click of a switch."
They wrote: "Although people generally feel that the pandemic has ended, death and destruction continue."
Rochelle Wallenski, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stressed that compared with a year or two ago, Americans have more tools to fight against COVID-19.
However, Vorenski acknowledged that the death cases of the elderly (especially those suffering from multiple chronic diseases) are "a real challenge".
Unlike the influenza virus that affects both children and the elderly, COVID-19 seems to mainly make the elderly face a higher risk of severe illness and death.
After the arrival of the first few batches of COVID-19 vaccine, the number of deaths of Americans over 65 years old from COVID-19 declined significantly, because the elderly are the most likely to be vaccinated. But now, the elderly in the United States are lagging behind in terms of enhanced vaccination: according to the CDC, 98% of people aged 65 to 74 and 96% of people over 75 completed the two injections respectively, while 22% and 25% of the people who had been vaccinated specifically for Omicron were vaccinated.
According to the report, in order to minimize further loss of life before the feared surge of winter cases, the White House announced that it would launch a six week campaign to promote the vaccination of the elderly and other severely affected groups.