CDC confirms COVID as the third leading cause of death in 2020-Consumer Health News

Thursday, April 1, 2021 (HealthDay News)-A new government report shows that COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in 2020, according to a survey showing the devastating pandemic damage to the United States. Confirming.

Researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that more than 547,000 lives have been lost in COVID-19 since the pandemic began last spring. Only two long-term biggest murderers, heart disease and cancer, killed more Americans in 2020.

In 2020 alone, COVID-19 was the cause or cause of 377,883 deaths in the United States, more than 11% of the estimated 3.3 million people who died last year. CBS News report. Heart disease, on the other hand, caused 690,882 deaths, and cancer caused 598,932 deaths.

Native Americans, Hispanics, and men over the age of 85 had the highest COVID-19 mortality rates. CBS News Hispanics were reported to have been hit hardest. The pandemic claimed almost twice as many lives as “unintentional injuries”, the third leading cause of death in 2019.

“Data should serve again as a catalyst for each of us. [to] At a media briefing on Wednesday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Warrensky will continue to play a role in reducing cases, reducing the spread of COVID-19, and vaccination of people as soon as possible. NPR report.

2020 was already the worst year in US history. The CDC recently estimated that life expectancy plummeted for a year in the first half of 2020. CBS News report.

Some have questioned the CDC’s death toll count. This relies primarily on state and local officials determining the cause of death. CBS News report.However, in the second report published in the CDC publication Weekly morbidity and mortality reports On Wednesday, the CDC concluded that the COVID-19 mortality count was probably accurate. Examining death certificate data, authorities found that 97% of cases documented other details consistent with the disease. CBS News report.

The report comes when the CDC warns that the one-month reduction in coronavirus mortality is at a standstill.

Pfizer vaccine safe for children up to 12 years old

Pfizer announced on Wednesday that the coronavirus vaccine is safe and highly effective for children up to the age of 12.

In a news release issued by Pfizer and its vaccine development partner BioNTech, company executives will submit vaccine test data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks for approximately 2,300 people between the ages of 12 and 15. Said that it would be done. ..

In a news release, Pfizer’s Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said, “We share the urgency to extend vaccine approval to the younger population and include clinical trial data for adolescents aged 12 to 15 years. I’m encouraged. ” “These data show the FDA and other regulators around the world as an amendment to an emergency use authorization in the coming weeks, hoping to start vaccination of this age group before the start of the next school year. I plan to submit it to. “

In the Phase 3 trial, the vaccine was 100% effective in preventing symptomatological disease in the trial, with 18 COVID-19 patients in the placebo-treated group and none in the vaccine-treated group. did. The vaccine evoked an even stronger immune response than that found in young adults.

Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University, New York Times She expected antibody levels in adolescence to be comparable to those in young adults. “But they are getting even better levels from the vaccine,” she said. “It’s really great.”

This discovery is the beginning of what many families have been waiting for, but companies have not yet released detailed data from trials that have not been peer-reviewed or published in medical journals. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is currently approved by the FDA for emergency use by people over the age of 16.

Last week, Pfizer-BioNTech also launched a trial in infants aged 6 months to 11 years. The two companies said the study would establish safe doses first in children aged 5 to 11 years, then in children aged 2 to 5 years, and then in children aged 6 months to 2 years.

BioNTech CEO Uğur Shahin said in a news release from both companies, “We are all anxious for a normal life. This is especially true for children. The first results seen in adolescent studies. Suggests that children are particularly well protected by vaccination. “

Moderna is conducting a similar test to test the coronavirus vaccine in teens and young children. The vaccine is approved by the FDA for emergency use by people over the age of 18.

Biden demands to return to Mask’s duty as incidents increase

As new coronavirus cases began to rise again across the United States, President Joe Biden called on Governor to regain state mask obligations on Monday.

Just a few hours ago, Dr. Rochelle Warrensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made an emotional plea to Americans to continue social distance measures to stop the spread of COVID-19. Sent.

A former Harvard Medical School professor and infectious disease specialist experienced last year when he saw the bodies of COVID-19 victims overflowing from the morgue while caring for a patient at Massachusetts General Hospital. I explained about the “nausea” that I had. She remembered how she stood as the last person in the hospital room before the patient died alone, “gowns, gloves, masks, shields”.

“When this pandemic is over, wait a little longer to get the vaccine as much as possible so that all the people we all love are still here,” Warrensky said in a media briefing. It was.

Warrensky seemed to hold back tears when he admitted that he felt a sense of “imminent ruin” about the possibility of a fourth outbreak of infectious disease.

As of Sunday, the 7-day average of new virus cases was about 63,000, Times report. This is an increase of more than 16%, up from 54,000 a day two weeks ago.

Nearly one in three adults in the United States has received at least one shot and nearly one-fifth has received a second shot, but the country is still far from herd immunity. Times report. The turning point occurs when the spread of the virus slows because so many people, estimated to be 70-90% of the population, are immune to the virus.

However, the state is rapidly expanding access to the coronavirus vaccine. Times report. On Monday, all adults were eligible for vaccination in at least six states: Texas, Kansas, Louisiana, North Dakota, Ohio, and Oklahoma. New York states that all adults will be vaccinated from April 6th.

Nevertheless, COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 40% in nine states over the past two weeks. Times report. Michigan has been hit hardest, with an increase of 133% and an increase in cases in the northeast. Connecticut reported a 62% surge in the last two weeks, while New York and Pennsylvania both reported more than 40% growth, the newspaper reported.

Other hotspots include North Dakota, where the number of cases increased by nearly 60%, and Minnesota, where the number of cases increased by 47%. Times report.

Global tragedy

By Thursday, the number of cases of coronavirus in the United States exceeded 30.4 million and the number of deaths exceeded 550,500. Times Aggregate. The top five states of coronavirus infection on Thursday are: There are more than 3.6 million cases in California. Almost 2.8 million Texas. Over 2 million Florida. Over 1.8 million New York. And there are more than 1.2 million cases in Illinois.

Controlling the spread of the coronavirus in other parts of the world remains difficult.

By Thursday, the number of cases of coronavirus had exceeded 12.6 million and more than 317,000 had died in Brazil, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. As of Thursday, there were more than 12.1 million cases and more than 162,400 deaths in India, according to Hopkins tally.

According to Hopkins, the number of infections reported worldwide exceeded 128.3 million on Thursday, killing more than 2.8 million.

For more information

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention New coronavirus.

Source: CBS News; NPR; New York Times