For now, the United States steps on the converted COVID-19

The rapidly changing coronavirus began with many infectious diseases in the United States in the summer, but with relatively few deaths compared to previous incarnations.

COVID-19 still kills hundreds of Americans every day, but it’s not as dangerous as last fall and winter.

Ali Mokudad, a professor of health metric science at the University of Washington in Seattle, said:

COVID-19 has turned into an unpleasant and inconvenient annoyance for many, at least for now, as more Americans are protected from serious illness by vaccination and infection.

“I feel cautious now,” said Dr. Dan Kaul, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. “It’s the first time I remember, but since it started, ICU hasn’t had (COVID-19) patients.”

As the country reaches July 4, the average daily death toll from COVID-19 in the United States remains at around 360. In the same summer depression last year, there were about 228 people in early July. This remains the lowest daily death threshold in the United States since March 2020, when the virus first began to spread in the United States.

However, far fewer cases were reported during this period last year, less than 20,000 per day. Currently, it’s about 109,000 and is probably underestimated because home tests aren’t reported regularly.

Today, in the third year of the pandemic, it’s easy to get confused by the complexities. With an increased likelihood of repeated infections, a significant proportion of infected individuals will face protracted symptoms of long-term COVID-19.

Still, for many, the serious risk of death is diminishing.

Dr. David Daudi, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said: “Over time, the body learns not to overreact when it sees this virus.”

“What we see is that people are getting more and more sick on average,” Daudi said.

According to one influential model, eight out of ten people in the United States are infected at least once.

The COVID-19 mortality rate was a moving target, but has recently fallen within the average flu season, according to data analyzed by Arizona State University health industry researcher Mara Aspinall.

Initially, some said that the coronavirus was not as deadly as the flu. “And for a long time it wasn’t true,” Aspinal said. At that time, people were not immune. The treatment was . The vaccine did not exist.

Now, according to Aspinal, strengthening immunity has definitely reduced mortality over the typical flu season. Over the last decade, influenza mortality has been around 5% to 13% of inpatients.

The big difference between flu and COVID-19: Coronavirus behavior continues to amaze health professionals, and it is still unclear whether it will settle into a flu-like seasonal pattern.

When vaccination first became widely available in the United States last summer, delta surges continued, followed by the arrival of Omicron, who killed 2,600 Americans a day at the peak of February last year.

Experts agree that new varieties may emerge that can escape the population’s accumulated immunity. The rapidly prevailing subtypes BA.4 and BA.5 of Omicron may also contribute to the change in mortality.

“Until these new submutants emerged, we thought we understood it,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious disease specialist at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas.

According to him, it is wise to assume that a new variant will emerge later this summer and attack the country.

“And another late fall / winter wave,” Hotez said.

Deaths may increase in many states in the coming weeks, but across the United States, deaths are likely to decline slightly, COVID-19ForecastHub in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nicholas Reich, who aggregates coronavirus predictions for the United States, said. And prevention.

“COVID hospitalizations have increased from just over 1,000 in early April to about 5,000 new hospitalizations daily, but COVID deaths have only increased slightly over the same period.” Reich, a professor of biostatistics at the university, said. Massachusetts Amherst.

Unvaccinated people are six times more likely to die of COVID-19 than those who have at least primary series shots, and the CDC estimates based on data available in April. ..

According to Daudi, the virus is spreading rapidly this summer, so consider the vulnerabilities of yourself and those around you, especially at large gatherings.

“There are still people who are in great danger,” he said.