THE United States has hit another grim milestone as Covid deaths hit one million two years after the virus reached America.
The staggering death total comes as Covid cases across the nation have plummeted as several states have begun lifting mask and vaccine mandates.
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The Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first Covid-positive case in the US on January 20, 2020.
Two months later, the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic.
More than a third of all reported deaths in the US happened last winter, between November 2020 and February 2021.
Since December 1, when health officials announced the first Omicron case in the US, the share of Americans who have been killed by the virus is at least 63 percent higher than in any of these other large, wealthy nations, The New York Times reported.
In recent months, the US passed Britain and Belgium to have, among wealthy nations, the largest share of its population to have died from Covid over the entire pandemic.
Since the Covid vaccines began rolling out in the US in December 2020, about 81 percent of the population has received at least one shot.
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However, less than 65 percent of all Americans are fully vaccinated.
As deadly as the Omicron wave has been, the situation in the US is far better than it would have been without vaccines.
The Omicron variant causes less severe illness than Delta, even though it has led to staggering case numbers.
Together, vaccines and the less-lethal nature of Omicron infections have significantly reduced the share of people with Covid who are hospitalized and dying during this wave.
Still, unvaccinated people continue to make up a majority of hospitalized patients across the nation.
As health officials continue to encourage the American public to get jabbed against the virus, 12 percent of Americans 65 and over have not received either two shots of a Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or one Johnson & Johnson shot, according to the CDC’s statistics.
And 43 percent of people 65 and over have not received a booster shot.
Even among the fully vaccinated, the lack of a booster leaves millions with waning protection months past the peak immunity levels afforded by the second shots.
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Vaccine effectiveness & Omicron
Expert studies have shown that the risk of severe illness from Covid-19 is reduced by 90 percent or more among people who are fully vaccinated.
While there are breakthrough cases of Covid among people who are vaccinated, they are rare.
In the event of a breakthrough case, victims are highly unlikely to be hospitalized with severe or deadly symptoms from the virus.
Health officials have advised that the Omicron variant is more infectious and could lead to further breakthrough cases.
Yet the spread can be offset by all vaccinated Americans receiving a booster shot.
Current vaccines are expected to protect against severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths due to infection with the Omicron variant.
With other variants, like Delta, vaccines have remained effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalizations, and death.
Studies have also shown that side effects from the vaccine are extremely rare.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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