Masks could save 100K lives this year
As the USA passes the 200,000 death mark, the tally will pass 300,000 within the next three months unless new efforts to halt the virus are adopted
The USA has tallied more than 200,477 COVID-19 deaths, by far the largest death toll in the world from the pandemic. Brazil has recorded 137,000. Other nations are under 100,000. Italy, which was clobbered by COVID-19 early in the pandemic, has lost 35,738. The number of new cases in the USA (orange line in chart below) continues to climb at a sharp rate. (Data from Johns Hopkins.) The University of Washington COVID-19 model projects the number of deaths in the USA will increase to at least 375,000 by the end of the year. Universal mask use could prevent more than 100,000 deaths in just the next three months, according to the UW model.
State officials say they continue struggling to obtain necessary protective and other supplies for their COVID-19 response, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. The Health and Human Services Department says the report is “incorrect.”
Contact tracing is an important step in containing (preventing the spread of) any infectious disease, but it proves challenging even if health departments have staff to do it. When COVID-19 was surging in two North Carolina counties during June and July, 35-48% of people who tested positive reported “no contacts,” and when contacts were identified, 25% or more were not reached, according to a new report pre-published by the CDC.
A Houston physician in her second year of residency died of COVID-19 at age 28. She had treated COVID-19 patients in the emergency department.
“Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Halloween, Día de Los Muertos, Navratri, Diwali, and Thanksgiving will likely need to be different this fall to prevent the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19,” says a new guidance document on holidays from the CDC.
In an interview with Trevor Noah on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, NIAID Director Anthony Fauci said divisive politics has hampered public health and contributed to confusion about ways to prevent COVID-19 infections.
