Four Powerful Graphics about COVID-19 in the United States

Environmental & Science Education, STEM, Health, Medicine, Society, Culture

Ed Hesser

On December 13,  the US recorded 50 million COVID-19 cases. The US has exceeded more than 800,000 deaths from the pandemic. These astounding numbers were reported on the BBC on December 14. 

The report notes that "the last 100,000 deaths came in just the past 11 weeks, a quicker pace than (at any) other point aside from last winter's surge. ... It has been more than 650 days since the first American patient dying from COVID-19 was reported in Seattle, Washington (public health officials have since attributed earlier deaths to the virus). ... the U.S. currently ranks 20th in the world."

The article's feature is found in four powerful graphs: how this number of deaths was reached; reported deaths in selected countries; the main waves of COVID-19 deaths; and the weekly rates of deaths by vaccine status. There are discussions of the graphs, links and a video of the COVID culture war in Tennessee.

Dr. Keri Althoff, Johns Hopkins University spoke to the BBC about the barriers faced in the U. S. "'Trust in science has waned, trust in government has waned, vaccine hesitancy is a powerful force, misinformation is rampant."

"'We have to do more than just trying to educate; we have to try and understand. That takes conversation and trust-building.'"

And then there is the spectre of Omnicron. Who knows what its ultimate effect(s) will be?