People have always died from wildfires!

Misinformed minimizes love to portray COVID-19 as just a flu. In 2021 the flu accounted for 5,000 deaths in America. In 2021 there were 460,000 COVID deaths in America. That is a hell of a lot more deaths due to COVID-19. COVID is not the flu.

Influenza (flu) and COVID-19 are both contagious respiratory illnesses, but they are caused by different viruses. COVID-19 spreads more easily than flu. Compared with flu, COVID-19 can cause more severe illness. Other diseases with flu like symptoms include, Polio, Legionella, Lyme Disease, HIV, TB, Leishmaniasis, Syphilis, Hepatitus, Smallpox. Histoplasmosis, and Antrax.

Even a ‘mild’ case of COVID can result in destruction of the bodies immune response to to other viruses. COVID damages vital organs such as the brain, heart, lungs, nervous system and can cause Long COVID in about one in five people infected. Symptoms of Long COVID can appear months after the initial infection ‘recovery’.

COVID is not the flu. COVID is a much deadlier viral pathogen with debilitating long term effects which can destroy any quality of life. “COVID damages CD8 and T cell response an effect akin to that observed in earlier studies showing long term damage to the immune system after infection with viruses such as hepatitis C or HIV.” –NIH funded study Getting infected with COVID offers no immunity boost.

3 years into this pandemic and the American response continues to be denial. COVID is not the flu.

COVID-19 Psychic

In America the surge of Delta COVID-19 cases is trailing off, but what will happen as we head into the winter months? Americans vaccinations have come to a virtual stand still and many people prefer to believe that the pandemic is over.

The virus will return and it will once again peak. Scientists are baffled to explain it’s continuing prevalence around the world. The best weapon against continued hospitalizations and deaths is to get vaccinated.

The New York Times reported that cases are rising in five northern states, Vermont, New Hampshire, Colorado, Michigan and Minnesota. This like the 2020 surge as the weather got colder.

There are about 80,000 cases a day in the United States. The U.S. is also not doing a great job of testing and contact tracing so those numbers are likely low. We are averaging 1,560 deaths a day. In the US over 50,000 people have died since that start of the Delta surge which began in June 2021. They did not need to die. A simple vaccine could have saved most if not all of those lives.

We can learn much about what might happen in the United States by watching trends around the world. Around the world there is declining activity. Europe however is seeing the highest number of cases and deaths in more than five months. Eastern Europe is particularly bad. Vaccine acceptance is particularly low in these countries. In Russia only 33% of residents are vaccinated. They don’t trust the government. Does that sound familiar? The death toll is likely under reported in Russia. The virus is not done with humanity. There are plenty of people that it can continue to burn through.

 

Younger Pool of Vulnerable Hosts

Children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible to be vaccinated. Hospital admissions are ticking up all across America thanks to the Delta variant which is 60% more transmissible than previous variants of COVID-19. It is spreading easily because people have dis-guarded masks, are crowding into indoor spaces, have resumed travel, and are resisting vaccinations.

Florida now accounts for 20% of the new cases of COVID many of those cases being the Delta Variant. Governor DeathSantis is not likely to reinstate any forms of health mandates to help stop the carnage. He has his eye on a presidential bid and needs the support of conspiracy theory believing MAGAts.

ICUs are filling with younger patients, in their 20s, 30s, and 40s,  many with no underlying health problems. Since the elderly are vaccinated the virus is burning its way through the unvaccinated population. Nearly all COVID related deaths are unvaccinated. Florida has less than 50% of its citizens vaccinated.

What is frustrating is that all this disease and death is entirely unnecessary. Misinformation first promoted by the former president is killing Americans. Many patients don’t realize their mistake until it’s too late. Doctors and nurses exhausted after more than a year of battling the virus are now becoming overwhelmed again by the needless death. They end of resenting the patients who are extending the pandemic needlessly. There is no cure once you are sick enough to need admission into the hospital.

675,000 Americans died in the in the U.S. 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. As of July 19, 2021 there have been Spanish Flu.  It would be nice to think that we as a nation had learned something in the 100 plus years since that tragedy. However history is repeating itself and stubborn and misinformed people are willingly going to slaughter. They believe until their dying breath that COVID is not real.