Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
What We've Lost To Covid: 28 Million Years Of Life, 750,000 Americans Dead
NBC News: Life Expectancy Fell Sharply In The U.S. Last Year Among High-Income Countries
The United States had the second-steepest decline in life expectancy among high-income countries last year during the pandemic, according to a study of death data spanning several continents. The only country studied that saw a starker overall trend was Russia. The study, published Wednesday in The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal), assessed premature death in 37 countries, comparing observed life expectancy in 2020 with what would have been expected for the year based on historical trends from 2005-2019. Life expectancy dropped in 31 of these countries during the pandemic. (Bush, 11/3)
The Washington Post: Covid Study Finds Some 28 Million Extra Years Of Life Lost In 2020, With U.S. Male Life Expectancy Badly Hit
More than 28 million extra years of human life were lost in 2020, a year marked by the global spread of the coronavirus, according to a study released Wednesday that further underscored the immense human toll that the pandemic has wrought. The international study, published in the BMJ journal, examined changes to life expectancy in 37 upper-middle to high-income countries where researchers said reliable data was available. The study, led by an Oxford University public health researcher, also considered years of life lost, a metric that measures the degree of premature mortality among the dead, by comparing the ages of the deceased to their life expectancies. (Jeong, 11/4)
The Washington Post: 750,000 Dead: In Too Many Families, Unity In Pain But Division In Mourning
Uncle Tyrone went first. On his way to the hospital in South Florida, he implored his niece Lisa Wilson: “I want the vaccine.”“You can’t get it now,” Wilson told Tuyrono “Tyrone” Moreland, who was 48. He never made it home, dying Aug. 22. Wilson’s grandmother, Lillie Mae Dukes Moreland, who raised Lisa and nine of her own children, was next. She’d decided against the vaccine. It was too new, she thought. Plus, some members of the family had counseled her against getting the shot. At 89, they said, she was too old. In late August, she came down with covid-19, was taken to the hospital the day after Tyrone’s funeral and died less than 24 hours later. The next day, Aug. 31, one of Wilson’s cousins died of covid complications. A few days later, another cousin, and then a third. And on Sept. 14, yet a fourth of Lisa’s cousins succumbed. (Fisher, Rozsa and Ruble, 11/3)
In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —
Des Moines Register: Iowa Surpasses 7,000 COVID-19 Deaths As New Reported Cases Increase In Weekly Update
COVID-19 cases rising again in Iowa as the state's death toll from the disease surpassed 7,000, according to new data the Iowa Department of Public Health released Wednesday. The state reported 104 additional COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, of which some occurred as far back as August. That brings Iowa's total number of COVID-19 deaths to 7,069. Put another way, since March 2020, COVID-19 has killed one out of every 451 Iowans. (Webber, 11/3)
Billings Gazette: COVID Hospitalizations Fall As Deaths Spike In Wyoming
The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Wyoming has fallen steadily over the last two weeks, but officials say the virus is still very present in the state, and remains a threat. At the same time, virus deaths continue to surge, with the state reporting 69 on Tuesday — the highest single-day announcement this year. A Wyoming Department of Health spokesperson declined to predict what the hospitalization numbers may look like going forward, but said the state “remains vulnerable” to the virus with the more aggressive delta variant still spreading and the state’s low vaccination rate. (Hughes, 11/3)
KHN: Patients Went Into The Hospital For Care. After Testing Positive There For Covid, Some Never Came Out
They went into hospitals with heart attacks, kidney failure or in a psychiatric crisis. They left with covid-19 — if they left at all. More than 10,000 patients were diagnosed with covid in a U.S. hospital last year after they were admitted for something else, according to federal and state records analyzed exclusively for KHN. The number is certainly an undercount, since it includes mostly patients 65 and older, plus California and Florida patients of all ages. Yet in the scheme of things that can go wrong in a hospital, it is catastrophic: About 21% of the patients who contracted covid in the hospital from April to September last year died, the data shows. In contrast, nearly 8% of other Medicare patients died in the hospital at the time. (Jewett, 11/4)
AP: LA Mayor Garcetti Tests Positive For Virus At Climate Summit
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday while attending the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, an event that has drawn world leaders and tens of thousands of other people from around the world. His office announced a positive test result in a tweet, adding only: “He is feeling good and isolating in his hotel room. He is fully vaccinated.” (Knickmeyer and Borenstein, 11/3)
NPR: Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, Who Said He Was 'Immunized,' Reportedly Has COVID
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the reigning NFL MVP, has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to multiple media reports. Packers head coach Matt LaFleur told reporters Wednesday that a different quarterback, Jordan Love, would start next weekend against the Kansas City Chiefs and that Rodgers was "in the COVID-19 protocols." LaFleur would not explicitly confirm whether Rodgers tested positive and also would not comment on whether Rodgers is vaccinated. NPR reached out to the team for comment and was directed to LaFleur's media appearance earlier in the day. According to ESPN, "The NFL has considered Rodgers as unvaccinated since the start of the season." NFL.com also reports that the Packers quarterback has not been vaccinated against COVID-19. (Kennedy, 11/3)
Also —
CIDRAP: College Football Didn't Fuel COVID-19 Spread Among Players, Study Suggests
COVID-19 didn't appear to spread efficiently within and among teams competing in the fall 2020 Southeastern Conference (SEC) college football season, finds an observational study published late last week in JAMA Network Open. The study, led by a Texas A&M University researcher, analyzed close contacts (within 6 feet) among opposing players during official games and COVID-19 athlete testing data from Sep 26 to Dec 19, 2020. (Van Beusekom, 11/3)
