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More than 400,000 diagnoses in a single day, 18,000 deaths in 7 days, will this be the worst week of the epidemic in the United States?
The new corona pneumonia epidemic in the United States continues to spread. According to epidemic data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.On December 19 local time, the United States reported more than 400,000 new confirmed cases of new corona pneumonia on the 18th. , which is a new country in the world with an increase of almost double. The highest number of new cases confirmed in a single day. Data released by Johns Hopkins University in the United States on the 19th local time showed that at 4:27 p.m. ET, the cumulative number of confirmed cases exceeded 17.6 million. There were 315,000 deaths.
On 19 local time, ABC reported that based on the three indicators of the number of new confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia in a single day, the number of new deaths in a single day, and the number of hospitalized cases, the last 7 days have been the worst week since the outbreak in the United States. .
The University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Assessment predicts that more than 237,000 Americans will die of COVID-19 in the next three months.
The medical system is facing collapse, the staff is physically and mentally exhausted
As the new corona pneumonia epidemic continues to worsen, America’s medical system faces unprecedented pressure. On December 18 local time, the states of New York and California reported that their medical systems were in a state of emergency.
Currently, New York State has increased its local hospital beds in accordance with health department regulations. Christina Galli, director of health services in Los Angeles County, said the remaining ICU in California is only 3%. There is an urgent need for 1,000 additional beds or more, and the capacity of California’s intensive care unit has fallen to a record low. In the worst affected areas, such as Southern California, the available capacity of the intensive care unit has been returned directly to zero.
In addition to the shortage of medical equipment, the situation for medical workers in the United States is also worrying: the number of patients with new coronary pneumonia has risen sharply, leading to a severe shortage of medical personnel.
Doctors and nurses who can still stay in their jobs have to work overtime continuously. Some of them have worked continuously for more than 10 hours a day from March to the present. The winter outbreak caused a sharp increase in the number of deaths in the United States, and hospitals have been in a sad atmosphere for a long time. The double pressure of the body and spirit makes many doctors miserable.
As early as mid-November, the Washington Post reported that the North Dakota governor announced that he planned to allow asymptomatic medical workers diagnosed with the new corona virus to continue working to care for the state’s growing medical staff. The problem of scarcity.
Medical equipment is scarce and the intensive care unit is desperate; medical staff are physically and mentally exhausted, and it is still difficult to fill the void when dealing with illness.
Cases of death increase, the patient is still difficult to handle
The epidemic in the United States continues to worsen and the number of deaths continues to increase According to a CNN report on 19, more than 18,000 Americans have died of a new coronary pneumonia in the last 7 days. To this end, California, the area hardest hit by the epidemic, purchased 5,000 additional body bags and, at the same time, requisitioned 60 refrigerated trucks for emergency autopsies and morgues.
Not only is the location of the remains a problem, but also the handling of the remains. Prior to this, in El Paso, the capital of El Paso County, Texas, due to the increasing number of new crown deaths and severe labor shortages, authorities paid for the recruitment of prisoners to “assist in the handling too many corpses awaiting autopsy. “
Some US media commented that while inmates serving prison labor is common practice in the United States, hiring inmates in El Paso to transport the remains of patients with new coronary pneumonia remains subject to ethical and moral issues. The authorities had to send the National Guard to take charge of the prisoners to carry the remains.
The rising death toll has also placed a great burden on funeral homes in the United States. Overworked funeral homes are very common.
Three funeral home employees in South Dakota work on the axis 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. A staff member at a funeral home in Austin, the capital of Texas, also said recent turnover is five times higher than at the start of this year’s epidemic.
The peculiarities of the remains of patients with the new crown have also caused more problems, according to California law, remains less than 24 hours after death must be kept in the freezer. To prevent the spread of the virus, many funeral homes require that remains be kept in the freezer for at least 72 hours, resulting in extremely limited storage space for remains.
The California funeral home staff said this is definitely the busiest year, and it is also a very unfortunate year, due to the rapid increase in deaths, the morgue has been completely filled and there is no room to receive other dead.
The prison and education system are under great pressure
As one of the hardest hit areas with concentrated infections, the spread of the new coronavirus in American prisons shows no signs of slowing down.
According to data compiled by the Associated Press and a US nonprofit news organization, as of December 18, one-fifth of US federal and state prisons had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and the infection rate was four times that of the general population. In some states, more than half of the prisoners were infected with the new coronavirus.
The Associated Press and this agency have collected COVID-19 data from prisons every week since March. The Associated Press reported on the 18th that at least 275,000 prisoners in the United States have been infected with the new corona virus so far, and more than 1,700 of them have died. The number of prisoners infected with the novel coronavirus in the United States reached the highest value since testing began in the spring of this week; The same out of every five people is infected with the new corona virus, the situation in North Dakota is particularly bad, 4 out of 5 prison employees are infected.
In addition to the prison system, American colleges and universities are also where the epidemic is concentrated. According to the latest statistics released by the New York Times in December, there have been more than 320,000 confirmed cases and at least 80 deaths on more than 1,900 college campuses in the United States. The vast majority of infections occurred after returning to school in the fall.
In addition, the new corona epidemic has compounded the long-standing “teacher shortage” problem in the United States. According to federal data, more than 40 states reported a math, science and special education teacher shortage in 2018, but fewer states reported an elementary school teacher shortage. The latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that in November this year, the employment rate in public schools fell 8.7% since February, the lowest level since 2000.
The Wall Street Journal website reported December 15 that each school district is recruiting parents to serve as substitute teachers. The number of classes in online courses has increased to 50 or more in one class. School bus drivers are also responsible for supervising the classroom. Some people even consider allowing it. Asymptomatic teachers infected with the new coronavirus continue to arrive at school.
The path of the US vaccine “war epidemic” is blocked and long
Currently, the United States has begun vaccination of the new corona vaccine, but negative news surrounding the vaccine has been continually exposed.
In particular, there have been three consecutive cases of adverse reactions among vaccinators in Alaska, and public opinion in the United States has expressed great concern about this.
Due to the severe shipping conditions of vaccines, there have been many cases of vaccine discards in the United States recently and many states are unable to obtain the original quantity of vaccines. Governors in many US states have complained that only half of the expected quantity of Pfizer vaccines will be delivered in the coming weeks.
The Los Angeles Times reported on the 18th that in an attempt to get priority vaccination rights for the new corona vaccine, some wealthy Americans went directly to the hospital to ask if they could get a dose of vaccine if they donated $ 25,000.
In addition to people using their financial power to obtain priority vaccination privileges, some large companies and consortia in the United States are also trying to obtain vaccines early. “The Wall Street Journal” recently broke the news that Amazon.com is lobbying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, trying to put their employees on the list of “personnel needed”, to receive the vaccine before ordinary people. Additionally, in addition to Amazon, the CDC has also received similar requests from many giant companies in the catering, aviation, and real estate industries.
Although wealthy Americans and corporate giants compete for the privilege of prioritizing vaccination, medical personnel have been greatly reduced in their willingness to vaccinate due to successive adverse reactions.
The University of California, Los Angeles, conducted an investigation of local medical personnel and found that many medical personnel had reservations about the American vaccine. Two-thirds of the medical staff expect or are unwilling to postpone vaccination; More than half believe that pressure from the federal government has led to over-hasty research and development of vaccines, greatly reducing their confidence in vaccines.
The public is also skeptical about the safety of American vaccines. A report recently released by the Pew Research Center in the United States shows that nearly 40% of Americans still say they will not receive the new corona vaccine. Additionally, African Americans are more concerned about vaccines than other ethnic groups, and the proportion of this group that is reluctant to get vaccinated is close to 60%.
In the case of successive problems with vaccines and the low willingness of the population to vaccinate, the United States still faces great difficulties in the prevention and control of the new epidemic crown. Obviously, it is impossible to count on vaccines to overcome the epidemic in the short term.
