The U.S. surpassed 800,000 deaths related to COVID-19 on Sunday, as the nation confronts the new Omicron variant across the nation.
The milestone was first announced by Reuters on Sunday based on information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“It took 111 days for U.S. deaths to jump from 600,000 to 700,000, according to Reuters analysis. The next 100,000 deaths took just 73 days, according to the Reuters report.
“The milestone means the U.S. death toll from this one virus now exceeds the entire population of North Dakota,” the report also noted.
The report also revealed that despite the widespread availability of vaccines and medical treatments, the U.S. “has the highest number of reported total COVID-19 deaths in the world.”
Among the states with the highest death rates per capita from COVID-19 in the U.S. since January 1 of this year. Alabama ranked number one, followed by Oklahoma, and West Virginia. The two states with the lowest numbers were Vermont, followed by Hawaii.
The most recent development regarding the spread of COVID-19 is the Omicron variant. First identified in South Africa, the variant quickly led to travel bans with South Africa and neighboring countries.
In a recent op-ed, Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association who reported the new variant early on, noted that many Omicron cases appear to be mild, adding:
If, as some evidence suggests, Omicron turns out to be a fast-spreading virus with mostly mild symptoms for the majority of the people who catch it, that would be a useful step on the road to herd immunity. … We’ll learn in the next two weeks if that’s the case. The worst situation — of course — would be a fast-spreading virus with severe infections. But that’s not where we are at the moment…
So far, the patients who’ve tested positive for Omicron here have been mainly young men — a mixture of vaccinated and unvaccinated (though, in our statistics, “unvaccinated” can also mean “single-vaccinated”.)
Only yesterday, I saw five more patients who had tested positive for the new variant. They all had a very mild illness.
The Daily Wire previously reported on a new study regarding the effectiveness of vaccines against the new variant:
Pfizer-BioNTech on Wednesday reported that initial results from studies examining how well their vaccine protects against a new coronavirus variant found that a booster shot — on top of a two-dose vaccine regimen — neutralizes Omicron in lab studies.
The pharmaceutical company said that just two shots showed decreased protection in studies, but a booster dose significantly raises protection.
“According to the companies’ preliminary data, a third dose provides a similar level of neutralizing antibodies to Omicron as is observed after two doses against wild-type and other variants that emerged before Omicron,” they said in a press release.
“These antibody levels are associated with high efficacy against both the wild-type virus and these variants. A third dose also strongly increases CD8+ T cell levels against multiple spike protein epitopes, which are considered to correlate with the protection against severe disease. Compared to the wild-type virus, the vast majority of these epitopes remain unchanged in the Omicron spike variant,” the release said.
Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla revealed during an interview on Thursday that he believes Americans will eventually need a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as concerns grow regarding the Omicron variant.
Bourla shared the comments during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” with Meg Tirrell and Becky Quick on Wednesday.
“Albert, Israel’s already working on fourth vaccination shots. What, what has it gotten them to that point where they think that that’s necessary and what are the results, the real world results, you’ve seen as, as a result of that?” Quick asked the Pfizer CEO.
“I think we will need the fourth dose. I’ve said that multiple times. With the previous, I was projecting that that will be on 12 months after the third dose,” Bourla answered.
“With Omicron, we need to wait and see because we have very little information. We may need it faster,” he added.
The discussion continues as many of the Biden administration’s vaccine mandates have been paused following multiple lawsuits, including one led by The Daily Wire.
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