When the Rev. Windell Rodgers left the pulpit on December 20, 2020, he never anticipated the journey he'd have to take to return.
Rodgers spent a total of five months in the hospital, including five weeksin an induced coma and three weeks on aventilator, after contracting COVID-19.
But, with the help of prayers and "angels" in the hospitals, he was able to preach again at his church, Greater Mount Calvary Baptist, for the first time in six months on June 19, Father's Day.
The sermon, he said, in part, was a wonderful opportunity to use his sickness to encourage others.
Rodgers said he doesn't have as much right as anybody else to still be alive, but "I'm still here.
"So the rest of my life now is committed to trying to identify purpose or even more purpose as to why I'm here and influence and impact the lives of others," Rodgers said. "Ourworld still needs some help. Our communities need some help."
PatriciaRodgers never expected what happened to her husband - her high school sweetheart - to happen. Neither did he.
Their home and church lives stressed following COVID-19 safety guidelines wearing masks, social distancing, hand washing, and sanitizing the facilities.
Thered been people in the church whod gotten COVID, but the illness was short-term, Windell Rodgers said. It was nothing like news reports where a whole church got infected by somebody whod had it, he said.
When I got sick, I was the only one who got sick," Windell Rodgers said. "I got so sick, people said, Whered you get it (the virus)? I said, I wish I knew. I dont know.
He does recall feeling weak after delivering the sermon in late December. But at the conclusion of the service, he'd hung around the church, fellowshipped with youths who'd lingered. He went home, had dinner with his wife and his daughter, Wendi.
That evening, he felt a need to go to the hospital.
I just knew something wasnt right so thats what made me go to the hospital, he said. I wasnt thinking COVID.
When he arrived at Hillcrest Hospital, he said believed hed be home the next day.
Tomorrow turned into five months later.
For at least five weeks, Windell Rodgers said he didnt know he was even in the world.
He missed the Super Bowl and President Joe Bidens inauguration. Some of his friends died one from COVID and others from natural causes.
It just broke my heart, he said. Ittook me a minute to get my mind wrapped around what did happen and why my body was like it was, because this thing wiped me out.
Patricia Rodgers, whose later bout with COVID-19 led to a dry cough and quarantine, said the first thing that came to her mind when she learned of her husbands diagnosis was Lord have mercy.
The weight of the diagnosis and what followedcaused her to shut down.
It was hard to even talk about, she said, even to those who'd called to check on her and those wanting an update on his condition. When she tried to release words, tears would flow instead.
It was not a personal thing against anybody. It was me. I didnt know how to handle it," she said.
I was fearful because first of all because he was sick and hes never been sick. Hes a strong, strong, healthy man so that threw me for a loop. I was like How could this happen?, she said.
On January 7, the medical teamtold Patricia Rodgers things were not looking good for her husband.
Pat talked to me and somewhat encouraged me to be placed on a ventilator, Windell Rodgers said. They said that would be my best hope.
He was taken to North Greenville Hospital, where he was also put on dialysis.
Meanwhile, prayers were being sent by Greater Mount Calvaryparishioners, family, friends, and people in the Greenville area.
I got people praying for me from everywhere, Windell Rodgers said. Weve done a lot of mission work and there are people from Kenya, Costa Rica, Mexico, Honduras and those type places and certainly locals to include the continental United States. I have been blown away with their encouragement.
Patricia Rodgers prayed in the hospital parking lot and inside the hospital lobby when she wasn't allowed to enter in to see her husband.
I knew he knew I was there," she said. "I knew he knew I was praying.
Sometimes, thehospital would let her Facetime him.
I would talk to him. I would pray. I would sing, I would read scripture because I knew he could hear me, she said.
Windell Rodgers was sent to Baptist Easley, where a trach tube was inserted to help him breathe and eventually returnedback to North Greenville Hospital.A nurse there phoned to tell PatriciaRodgers that Windell Rodgershad opened his eyes.
I screamed, I ran through this house praying, Patricia Rodgers said. I was so happy.Theyd told me he wasnt going to wake up. Id said, he will. I believe he will. Praise God for that.
After testing COVID free, Windell Rodgers was sent to Greenville Memorial and then toa rehabilitation facility in Anderson before deciding to rehab at home.
He said his wife has been outstanding and he has no want for anything. Windell Rodgers also said hes grateful to have children he can call on if he needs them.
But, he's adjusting to a life he didn't have before COVID.
The 66-year-old is 30 pounds lighter, which he doesn't mind.
He has use of a walker, wheelchair and a cane when he needs them.
While he didn'thave a stroke, he did suffer stroke-like symptoms leaving him unable to use his left wrist.
Hes on dialysis three days a week because the virus has pushed his pre-existing kidney disease over the edge.
Windell Rodgers, wholl celebrate 49 years of marriage to his wife in September, is simply grateful to be alive. He admitshe gave a lot of the doctors and nursesa hard time.
I was in a situation where I couldnt do anything for myself, he said. Here I am now, my body is not 100 (percent) but Im in my right mind. I owe most importantly God, but I owe people something to be the best person that I can be, to set an example and hope theyll listen."
One example he hopes others will follow is getting the COVID-19 vaccination. He and his wife have had their vaccinations.
Youve nothing to lose by getting the vaccine and you may very well help a whole lot of others, WindellRodgers said. Get the vaccine. I cant emphasize that enough because you dont want COVID. You just dont.
Patricia Rodgerscalls her husband "amiracle." She, too, is pleading with others to get the vaccine.
COVID is quite real, she said. He was deathly ill. Please get the vaccination. Trust God and be an advocate for your family members.
The COVID-19 testing schedule for sites operated by the Louisiana Army National Guard (LANG) for the week of July 6-11 is listed below.
REGION 1
Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard and Plaquemines
Harold McDonald Sr. Park
900 Drake Ave., Westwego
8 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday-Friday
Mahalia Jackson Theater
1419 Basin St., New Orleans
8 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and 8 a.m.-12 p.m. Saturday
REGION 2
East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Ascension, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, West Feliciana and East Feliciana
LSU Campus: Student Union Building
254 S. Stadium Drive, Baton Rouge
9 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday-Friday
Southern University: FG Clark Activity Center
801 Harding Blvd., Baton Rouge
9 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday-Friday
REGION 5
Calcasieu, Cameron, Jefferson Davis, Allen and Beauregard
Lake Charles Civic Center
900 N. Lakeshore Drive, Lake Charles
9 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday and Friday
If you have been exposed or have symptoms of COVID-19, get tested.
By June Gruber, Jay J. Van Bavel , Neil A. Lewis, Jr., William A. CunninghamJul. 6, 2021 , 5:05 PM
After an absolutely devastating year, academic scientists in some parts of the world are beginning to reopen their labs and see their colleagues in person. As the global vaccination campaign continues, scientists elsewhere will begin to take similar steps. Many of us are still struggling to cope with the consequences of the pandemic. But after the crisis passes, we may find that it leads to some positive change. In our labs, we have begun to look back on the past year to see whether there might be any useful lessons learned.
After the pandemic hit, we transformed our traditional lab meetings into remote meetings from our homes, worked nontraditional hours around child care, and adjusted our teaching. Jay even taught a class on his cellphone while he was trapped in an elevator with his kids. We struggled with our own mental health challenges as we tried to hold things together, and we mourned the loss of loved ones. Through it all, we had to figure out new ways to do our research, teach our classes, and support our students and colleagues. In short, we did the best we could in a bad situation. But we also learned a few things we might want to continue to do, or do differently once things get back to some semblance of normal.
Here are some of our personal reflections and goals for the future.
The team-written Letters to Young Scientists column offers training and career advice from within academia.
June: At first, I was suddenly without child care for two young children in a pandemic and scrambling to find time for anything. I was stressed about what trying to manage my job responsibilities over Zoom would be like and how I could support my trainees from afar. I was speechless as I observed some of my colleagues continuing with work as usual. But in the midst of much stress and uncertainty, I discovered an unexpected upside: Remote meetings allowed my lab to open up our weekly meetings to former trainees whod moved away but wanted to stay connected. It also provided an opportunity to invite outside guest speakers. Now, we are discussing ways to keep the virtual format going periodically to maintain accessibility for trainees who may have busy schedules, child care needs, or work off campus, and to allow us to invite outside speakers to share their ideas.
Jay: I agree that moving to virtual lab meetings had some surprising benefits. We were able to include students and postdocs from several other countries in our regular meetings, as well as guest speakers from around the world. Our lab has become truly international. Moving lab meetings to a virtual environment also made it very easy to record videos of the talks and workshops that we hosted. We set up a YouTube channel and we have already shared over 30 videos. We also opened up our lab meeting for a sneak preview for prospective Ph.D. students. Although we are all eager to see each other in person again, we plan to keep a virtual component of our lab meeting going forward.
Neil: One of my labs main challenges during the pandemic was how to keep our work going. We do a lot of research that requires in-person work, but all of that had to be put on hold. The change led us to step back and shift our focus to other kinds of projects that can be done remotely, like reviews and syntheses about what is known and what we still need to learn. I also spent more time writing for the public and serving on task forces because my social science work was relevant to thinking about how to improve equity during the pandemic. In the future I would like to do more of that because I find it rewarding to do what I can to promote the use of science to benefit society.
Wil: I really do not want to credit the pandemic with anything positive. But because much of our lab research was shut down, one silver lining was that I started new collaborations working with computer scientists. Much of our research required in-person testing, and that just wasnt possible anymoreso, we started running simulation studies. It was something I had wanted to do for decades, and the sudden change to our research gave us time to explore this new area and find new collaborations.
June: I identify with Wils ambivalence. The pandemic presented many more downsides than opportunities, and it was an incredible strain on my own and my trainees well-being. Yet as a scientist who studies emotions and mental health, I also knew we could not turn away from what was happening in front of our own eyes. Similar to Wil, my students and I decided to embark on a new line of work doing remote-based surveys to learn about college students mental health. This sparked important conversations and collaborations across the globe that we are still pursuing. With nearly 30 of my colleagues, we came together to co-author a call-to-action on the mental health crisis sparked by the pandemic. I also got more involved in writing for the public, and I created a free online course to address the stigma about mental illness. Never before did I see such unity and purpose in my field to creatively address a societal problem.
Wil: Highlighting mental health is important. One thing I learned during the pandemic is how quickly people can lose the basic support that allows us to functionin academia and in the rest of life.
Neil: I wholeheartedly agree. One of the most important things we did in my lab this past year was more frequent check-ins and open discussions about how were doing and how we can support each other.
Jay: In my lab, we started to have more explicit conversations about mental health before the pandemic, but struggling through the pandemic made these conversations more urgent. We regularly discussed our stress and struggles together and blocked off a number of weeks where we effectively shut down the lab to help people get a mental health break. I have also made a much greater point of urging people to take vacations, and I plan to keep these changes in place long after the pandemic. It benefits everyone in the lab, from the newest students to the principal investigator, to have a culture where people feel supported and refreshed. We need to make these topics part of the conversation in every department and constantly revise how we work to maximize our physical and mental health. I think I took these issues for granted in the past, but certainly wont in the future.
June: The pandemic highlighted what we already knewthat the mental health of students (and faculty) is suffering and that academia does not provide enough support. Yet this reality check also sparked more open conversations around mental health. Moving forward, we must not forget that the pandemic showed us that change is needed in how scientists talk about and support mental wellness.
Wil: I also hope that the openness that we have found with each other continues and we will be there for each other for future challenges.
Send your thoughts, questions, and suggestions for future column topics to letterstoyoungscientists@aaas.org andengage with us on Twitter.
Read more from Letters to Young Scientists
Maine reported 38 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, with one additional death. The case total represents infections detected over the previous two days.
With the pandemic easing, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention is not routinely updating its case counts on holidays and weekends. Because July 4 fell on a Sunday, state offices and many workplaces were closed on Monday.
The seven-day average of daily new cases stood at 18.4 on Wednesday, compared to 25.1 a week ago and 72.9 a month ago.
Since the pandemic began, Maine has recorded 69,156 cases of COVID-19, and 861 deaths. The most recent death was a man age 80 or older who lived in Cumberland County, the Maine CDC said.
The number of people hospitalized in Maine with COVID-19 rose slightly to 31 on Wednesday, including 16 in critical care beds and six on a ventilator.
On the vaccination front, 791,510 people in Maine have received their final dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, representing 58.9 percent of the states 1.3 million population. Maine has the third-highest percentage of its population fully vaccinated, according to the Bloomberg vaccine tracker, behind Vermont and Massachusetts. The New England states take up the top six spots in the nation for the highest percentage of people who are fully vaccinated.
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European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters building is seen in Frankfurt, Germany, March 7, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo
LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Inflation has emerged as one of the top concerns for central bank reserve managers, alongside a failure to end the COVID-19 crisis and soaring debt levels, showed the results of a UBS survey released on Wednesday.
Fears about inflation and uncontrolled rises in long-term yields, a risk not flagged by participants at all in last year's Annual Reserve Manager Survey, were raised by 57% of respondents this year as a main risk to the global economy.
Failure to end the pandemic was cited as a worry by 79% of respondents, with 71% flagging government debt levels.
Reflecting angst about the gravity of COVID-19, half of participants in the survey believe the virus will be over only after 2022.
Reserve managers from close to 30 global central banks responded to the survey, conducted during April and June.
"Inflation is back at the top of concerns for central bankers," Massimiliano Castelli, UBS's head of strategy and advice, global sovereign markets, told Reuters.
"The majority is saying they expect a rise, but not sort of moving to very high levels of inflation. So it seems there is a sort of view among the central banking community that the current rising inflation that we are experiencing is transitory."
In terms of risks specifically related to the investment of FX reserves, the top concern, cited by 86% of respondents, remained lower and negative yields within fixed income.
More than two-thirds of participants expect the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates in 2023, while 30% expect the Fed to do so in 2022.
In contrast, participants expect a later hiking cycle for the European Central Bank, with 33% expecting the first interest rate increase in 2023, 41% in 2024 and only 26% later than 2024.
Asked how far leading central banks might go to support markets and the economy if needed, 58% of respondents think the Fed could turn to yield curve control.
The trend towards more diversification of reserves across asset classes continued, the survey showed. Equities is an eligible asset class for over 40% of central banks and emerging market debt for 54% of respondents, while there was a shift towards more assets protecting against inflation.
Nearly 40% of respondents expect wholesale central bank digital currencies to be launched within the next three years.
Reporting by Tom Arnold in LondonEditing by Matthew Lewis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Health workers in Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen have recently reported that they face significant barriers to obtaining vaccines, and existing vaccines may expire before they are used. By failing to take all available measures to address the Covid-19 pandemic, Houthi authorities are subjecting the countrys medical workers to unnecessary risk, which could further devastate the countrys healthcare system.
Human Rights Watch and others have previously criticized Houthi authorities disinformation about the pandemic and their undermining international efforts to distribute vaccines. On June 1 the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that a vaccination campaign would finally begin in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, starting with 10,000 doses for healthcare workers. This was a welcome step for desperate health workers battling the deadly coronavirus with little to no assistance from the authorities. But in the past month, even this small distribution has proved elusive.
Most of the barriers to vaccination are directly tied to the Houthi authorities apparent unwillingness to take the pandemic seriously. They have not advertised vaccination center locations or encouraged health workers to take the vaccines. They have also prevented any information about the campaign to appear on the Houthi health ministrys website, and mandated that health workers give blood before they can receive a vaccine.
At least 150 doctors in Yemen have died from Covid-19, according to the Yemeni Doctors Living Abroad Association. Last year, most of the 97 health workers who died from Covid-19 were in Yemens Houthi-controlled capital, Sanaa. The death of health workers has serious consequences in a country with a healthcare system decimated by years of war, a shortage of medical professionals, and what the United Nations has called the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. It is estimated that only half of Yemens healthcare system is functioning and is heavily reliant on support from international donors, whose aid has decreased in recent years.
In May, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock indicated that Covid-19 was pushing Yemens healthcare system to collapse. Given the urgent medical needs of the Yemeni people, Houthi authorities should immediately lift all barriers to vaccination and allow health workers to safely perform their vital role.
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of July 6, 2021, there have been 3,027,206 total confirmatory laboratory results received for COVID-19, with 164,279 total cases and 2,901 deaths.
DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 72-year old female from Kanawha County and a 93-year old male from Mercer County.
We offer our deepest condolences to these families, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. Eligible West Virginians must choose to get vaccinated to stop the spread of COVID-19. The vaccine is available statewide to all residents age 12 and older.
CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (1,515), Berkeley (12,856), Boone (2,179), Braxton (1,020), Brooke (2,249), Cabell (8,888), Calhoun (394), Clay (543), Doddridge (646), Fayette (3,558), Gilmer (888), Grant (1,317), Greenbrier (2,902), Hampshire (1,928), Hancock (2,845), Hardy (1,584), Harrison (6,209), Jackson (2,265), Jefferson (4,807), Kanawha (15,505), Lewis (1,298), Lincoln (1,607), Logan (3,303), Marion (4,660), Marshall (3,539), Mason (2,064), McDowell (1,615), Mercer (5,200), Mineral (2,990), Mingo (2,771), Monongalia (9,400), Monroe (1,226), Morgan (1,230), Nicholas (1,908), Ohio (4,317), Pendleton (725), Pleasants (959), Pocahontas (682), Preston (2,962), Putnam (5,334), Raleigh (7,096), Randolph (2,860), Ritchie (761), Roane (665), Summers (865), Taylor (1,283), Tucker (547), Tyler (749), Upshur (1,973), Wayne (3,183), Webster (547), Wetzel (1,393), Wirt (457), Wood (7,953), Wyoming (2,059).
Free pop-up COVID-19 testing is available today in Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Brooke, Clay, Grant, Lincoln, Logan, Morgan, and Wyoming counties.
Barbour County
9:00 AM 11:00 AM, Barbour County Health Department, 109 Wabash Avenue, Philippi, WV
Berkeley County
1:00 PM 5:00 PM, Shenandoah Community Health, 99 Tavern Road, Martinsburg, WV
Boone County
Brooke County
Clay County
1:00 PM 3:00 PM, Clay County Health Department, 452 Main Street, Clay, WV
Grant County
Lincoln County
Logan County
Morgan County
1:00 PM 5:00 PM, Valley Health War Memorial Hospital, 1 Health Way, Berkeley Springs, WV
Wyoming County
11:00 AM 3:00 PM, Wyoming County Fire Department, 12 Park Street, Pineville, WV
Take a long enough lens say, 25 years and it seems as though health care in America is inarguably getting better.
People are living longer than they did a quarter century ago. The burden of disease, a metric that includes premature deaths and disability, has dropped. The number of avoidable hospitalizations and hospital errors is lower.
But below those rosy numbers is the truth: American health care has been falling behind other countries in the developed world for decades.
Life expectancy has increased, but by less in the US than in the wealthy nations of Europe and Asia. The improvement in disease burden has likewise been less impressive than that of comparable countries. Meanwhile, to achieve those mediocre results, the United States continues to spend more money on medical care than any other country in the world; while health spending in the US isnt going up faster than in other countries, it was higher to begin with and continues to increase. Weve maintained a sizable lead in health care spending while getting outcomes that are worse than countries that spend less.
And all of that was true even before the United States experienced one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in the world.
Kaiser Family Foundation researchers recently warned of a further widening of the gap between the US and other countries as a result of the pandemic. Life expectancy in the US had already stagnated in the last few years, driven by a rise in drug overdoses and suicides; now Covid-19 will shorten it further. Disease burden had been trending upward in the US while dropping elsewhere; the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to widen that disparity too.
You could say the trajectory of American health care before, during, and after the pandemic is like that of an individual vulnerable patient: It was sicker to begin with, hit hard by Covid-19, and will be dealing with the lingering effects for a long time.
When it comes to getting value for money in health care, America slowly but perceptibly fell behind other developed countries over the last 25 years.
It starts with life expectancy, the bluntest measure of how well people are served by their health system. Life expectancy in the developed world has steadily improved over the past few decades, driven primarily by major breakthroughs in the treatment of heart disease and other cardiovascular problems, which rank near the top among causes of deaths in wealthy nations.
But not as much in the United States as in other countries. According to a KFF analysis of health care trends from 1991 to 2016, Americans saw their life expectancy rise by 3.1 years during that period a meaningful improvement, to be sure, but substantially less than the 5.2 years gained in comparable countries.
And in the US specifically, that progress has stagnated in recent years. With tens of thousands of people dying of opioid overdoses every year and a sustained increase in the number of suicides, American life expectancy actually started tailing off in 2014, according to a 2019 analysis published in JAMA. The gap between the US and other wealthy countries was already growing before Covid-19 struck.
Likewise, disease burden had steadily improved until a recent downturn separated the US from other countries. The reasons for the improvement were the same: better medical treatment for chronic diseases. But once again, America did not improve to the degree that comparable countries did, seeing a 12 percent improvement versus an average of 22 percent elsewhere. In the United States, the burdens from disease of the heart, lung, kidney, and liver as well as from diabetes remain stubbornly high compared with the rest of the developed world.
And the reasons for Americas recent stagnation are the same, too: Suicides and drug overdoses, plus a rise in the number of young people with chronic health conditions, are robbing people of years of healthy living.
The same pattern holds for medical errors. They have been declining in the US over the last 25 years but are still more common in America than in comparable countries. Avoidable hospitalizations and adverse drug events are down, but not as much as in wealthy European or Asian nations. Americans are roughly twice as likely to experience an error in their medical care as their counterparts the world over.
One metric known as mortality amenable to health care combines all of these characteristics and grades a countrys health system on how well it prevents deaths from conditions that should be treatable with timely access to health care. The US ranked behind the biggest countries in Europe, as well as Japan, as of 2016.
A country like Taiwan, which performed much worse than the US on the same metric 30 years ago, is now nearly its equal.
And for those middling outcomes, the US still spends more on health care than other countries: nearly 18 percent of its GDP versus about 11 percent, on average, in comparable nations. Health spending has been rising at the same rate in the US and its peers over the last few decades, and yet those other countries have seen more improvement in their health outcomes.
They are, in other words, getting more value out of their health systems than the US.
One could conclude that the comparable ... countries value improvement was greater, the KFF researchers wrote in 2018, even though they started at a higher threshold in terms of better outcomes and a lower percentage of GDP consumed to achieve it.
One possible explanation for Americas poor performance: We underinvest in social spending and overspend on medical care compared with other developed countries. If you combine social services spending and health spending, the US and its peers actually spend about the same amount of money, a little more than 30 percent of their GDPs. But spending in those other countries is more slanted toward social services, while America spends more on medical care.
Americas underinvestment exacerbates disparities between haves and have-nots: 18 percent of Americans live in poverty versus 10 percent in other wealthy countries. We know that people with lower incomes have structural challenges access to healthy food, clean water, and fresh air, for starters that lead to worse health outcomes. When they get sick, they have a harder time finding a doctor and affording their medical care.
Economic inequality is increasingly linked to disparities in life expectancy across the income distribution, and these disparities seem to be growing over time, wrote the authors of a 2018 review of relevant research in Health Affairs. Poor health also tends to lead to lower incomes, creating a feedback loop known as the health-poverty trap.
And those disparities between rich and poor, white and Black only worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The gap between the US and other wealthy nations is expected to grow because of the pandemic. America has lost more than 600,000 people to Covid-19, the highest confirmed death toll in the world. Adjusting for population, the US has lost more people on a per-capita basis than most of the European and Asian countries to which it is compared.
Official death counts can be somewhat arbitrary because they depend on testing to identify cases. Excess deaths the number of deaths from all causes above what would be expected in an ordinary year are considered by experts to be a more reliable gauge. On that metric, too, and adjusting for population, the United States is one of the worst performers among wealthy nations.
The outsized effect of the pandemic on the U.S. will likely widen the existing gap in mortality rates between the U.S. and peer countries, wrote the authors of an October 2020 analysis on Covid-19 death rates and life expectancy.
America is also likely to experience a higher disease burden (thats the years of quality life lost to premature death and disability) as a result of its pandemic failures. People under 65 in the US have died from Covid-19 at higher rates than their peers elsewhere.
A prolonged mental health crisis may linger after a year of disrupted social lives and isolation. More than 4 in 10 Americans reported experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression in 2020, according to US census surveys.
Health spending actually slowed down in 2020, a historic aberration, as people postponed medical care during the pandemic. But medical spending did not slow down as much as the rest of the economy: As of October 2020, it had fallen 0.5 percent versus a 1.8 percent contraction overall. So even as spending dropped, health care likely consumed an even greater share of Americas GDP than in years prior.
And the short-term drop in spending could have long-term consequences. Last year, 24 percent of Americans said in a census survey that they did not get needed medical care during the pandemic, with 33 percent saying they delayed care. To give one example, cervical cancer screenings dropped about 80 percent from normal levels in spring 2020, and while they rebounded later in the year, they were still 25 percent down by the end of September.
While patient volume generally has recovered, we still dont know what the long-term effects of people missing care or receiving belated diagnoses will be. And there are tens of millions of people recovering from a Covid-19 infection; as many as 15 million of them may struggle with long Covid for the foreseeable future, according to a new analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine that called long Covid-19 our next public health disaster in the making. Those direct health aftershocks from the pandemic will be yet another burden on the US health system long after the coronavirus itself starts to subside.
Long-term spending trends were already prompting health plans to push more of the cost of health care onto patients. Deductibles and worker premiums have been increasing for years.
Post-Covid-19, at least as a relative share of the economy, health care is eating up even more of the countrys resources. Americas health outcomes have been set back by the pandemic, and the spending crunch is intensifying.
(Update: OHA corrects, breaks down weekend case count)
PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- There is one new COVID-19 related death in Oregon, raising the states death toll at 2,782, the Oregon Health Authority reported Tuesday.
OHA also reported 85 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, bringing the state total to 209,494.
OHA also reported 463 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 over the holiday weekend, as of 12:01 a.m.Tuesdaybringing the state total to 209,494. Oregon reported 85 new confirmed andpresumptive COVID-19 cases onJuly 5, 66 new confirmed and presumptive cases onJuly 4, 123 new confirmed and presumptive cases onJuly 3and 189 new confirmed and presumptive cases onJuly 2.
Vaccinations in Oregon
OHA reported Tuesday that 1,707 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 1,233 doses were administered on Monday and 474 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Monday.
The seven-day running average is now 5,746 doses per day.
Oregon has now administered 2,553,609 first and second doses of Pfizer, 1,748,032 first and second doses of Moderna and 171,120 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
As of Tuesday, 2,413,181 people have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2,205,984 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series.
Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused many providers to lag in their reporting. OHA has been providing technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the states ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).
To date,2,964,195 doses of Pfizer, 2,240,820 doses of Moderna and299,100 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
These data are preliminary and subject to change.
Updated vaccination data are provided on Oregons COVID-19 datadashboardsand have been updated Tuesday.
COVID-19 hospitalizations
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 125, which is 15 fewer than Monday. There are 29 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is one more than Monday.
The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. The numbers do not reflect admissions per day, nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity.
More information about hospital capacity can be found here.
St. Charles Bend reported 13 COVID-19 patients as of early Tuesday, three of whom were in the ICU, all on ventilators.
Cases and deaths
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Tuesday are in the following counties: Baker (1), Benton (1), Clackamas (11), Columbia (2), Deschutes (2), Douglas (11), Jackson (13), Josephine (4), Klamath (1), Lane (9), Linn (5), Multnomah (22), Sherman (1), Union (1) and Wasco (1).
Note:Oregon reports 66 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases on July 4, 123 new confirmed and presumptive cases on July 3 and 189 new confirmed and presumptive cases on July 2. OHA is no longer providingcounty-level datafor weekends or holiday weekend periods.
Oregons 2,782nd death is a 63-year-old man from Douglas County who tested positive on May 23 and died on June 10 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.
Oregon updates non-viable vaccine disclosure (1,2,3)
OHAs non-viable vaccine table has been moved to the Tableau dashboard. You can find thatlink to the weekly tab here. OHA reports updates on vaccines not being used each Tuesday in its daily media release.
1 Updated: 07/06/21
2 Data source: ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS)
3 Data is preliminary and subject to change.
Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations
To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit OHA's webpage (EnglishorSpanish), which has a breakdown of distribution and other information.
A donation of doses from the veterinary pharmaceutical company Zoetis will allow Denver Zoo to vaccinate some of its animals against COVID-19 within the next few weeks, CBS Denver reports. The zoo joins Oakland Zoo in aiming to vaccinate some of its residents.
Denver Zoo VP of Animal Health Dr. Scott Larsen stressed that the doses are specifically made for animals. "We are not taking any vaccines away from humans," Dr. Larsen told the station.
The Denver Zoo has reported that none of its animals have contracted COVID-19 but transmission is possible, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Big cats and monkeys in zoos can become infected, likely from zookeepers that have tested positive for the virus.
The first shipment of 40 doses enough to vaccinate 20 animals is scheduled to arrive at Denver Zoo within the next few weeks. Each animal that is vaccinated will have its status documented and undergo blood samples when possible.
"We'll vaccinate, in the gorilla's case, maybe one, maybe two. In the lions we may do two or three, and make sure it's working before we give it to everybody," Larsen explained.
The Denver Zoo could vaccinate up to 100 animals by the end of the summer.
