On May 15, the guardian website published an article entitled "the death toll of COVID-19 in the United States has reached 1million, and the death toll is higher than that of any other country". The article said that the super high death toll of COVID-19 in the United States makes it different from other rich countries, exposing its inequality, fragmented medical system and political polarization, all of which may worsen the crisis. The full text is excerpted as follows:
The number of deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has exceeded 1million, undoubtedly the largest among all countries. According to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus data center, 303 out of every 100000 residents in the United States die of COVID-19. Among the 20 countries most affected by the epidemic, only Brazil has a higher mortality rate per 100000 people.
The deaths directly caused by the COVID-19 are only a measure of the number of deaths from the pandemic. In 2021, the number of deaths caused by overdoses reached an all-time high, killing at least 100000 Americans. Chronic diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure and dementia have also led to "excessive deaths" - including deaths directly caused by other diseases aggravated by the epidemic and COVID-19. This figure crossed the 1million mark in mid February.
The researchers said that such a high death toll makes the United States unique among equally wealthy countries, exposing its inequality, fragmented health care system and political polarization, all of which may worsen the crisis.
Stevenwolf, a social epidemiologist and population health researcher at Virginia Commonwealth University, said: "to understand why our response to the epidemic is so bad, we must think about the systemic problems that existed when the epidemic broke out. In addition, frankly, both the government and the public did not respond properly to the pandemic."
However, the United States faces difficulties in correcting its practices. This epidemic has exposed the long-standing racial and ethnic health differences. The proportion of blacks, Latinos and Native Americans infected, hospitalized and died of COVID-19 is almost twice that of whites in the United States.
The reasons for these results - people of color have much lower access to housing, employment and health care conditions like white Americans - are well known and well documented. According to a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, this difference is "an intentional or unintentional consequence of policy decisions".
This pandemic requires all efforts, and this feature has also enabled the prevalence of other infectious diseases that could have been prevented and treated. Thousands of children, especially those from low-income families, missed routine vaccinations. The incidence rate of sexually transmitted diseases has reached "the highest level in the history of the United States", because local health institutions that are overwhelmed and lack funds allocate resources to deal with novel coronavirus.
At the same time, the mental health of adolescents is particularly affected, and millions of people are unable to access the mental health services provided by schools. Pediatricians, children's hospitals and psychiatrists have announced that American teenagers have a mental health crisis. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and prevention in the United States showed that the number of emergency cases for adolescent girls caused by eating disorders increased sharply.
As the number of children who can eat at school has dropped sharply, millions of children have fallen into a state of food insecurity. Missed study hours also seem to widen the achievement gap.
However, the United States' reliance on expensive, private and exclusive health systems is not the only reason. Although the policy of excluding 28million uninsured individuals from health insurance may make things worse, this is only one example of the deterioration of Americans' health caused by fragmented policies.
In this pandemic, the basic idea of American governance has also proved problematic. For example, the U.S. Constitution stipulates that public health is the responsibility of each state, which has created a variety of epidemic response methods.
Culture and environment also seem to play a role. Americans are more likely than citizens of other countries to engage in behaviors that public health researchers consider risky, such as owning guns, smoking, eating more calories and exercising less. Polarized politics makes it more difficult to take measures to regulate these behaviors.
The inadequate response of the federal, state and local governments made the existing problems worse, and eventually led to the public health guidance related to the pandemic becoming a political and cultural ball kicked around.