BriggsNetNews

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP
Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare

“This updated analysis estimates that nationally at least 234,000 deaths from COVID-19 between June 2021 and March 2022 could have been prevented with a primary series of vaccinations. These vaccine-preventable deaths represent 60% of all adult COVID-19 deaths since June 2021, when vaccines first became widely available to adults across the country, and a quarter (24%) of the nearly 1 million COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began.

While it is clear that vaccine effectiveness increases with booster shots, the analysis does not estimate the potential effect of booster protection here on COVID-19 deaths. If it had, it likely would have found additional deaths among unvaccinated adults, as well as some deaths among vaccinated, could have been prevented.

The analysis can be found on the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, an information hub dedicated to monitoring and assessing the performance of the U.S. health system.”

The above opening statement is found on the April 21, 2022 Kaiser Family Foundation Coronaviruswebsite. 

Another must-read is COVID-19 leading cause of death ranking.

“This brief examines how deaths from COVID-19 rank among other leading causes of death in the U.S. We find that nearly as many people died of COVID-19 in February 2022 as the typical deaths from heart disease. We also find that in January 2022, COVID-19 was the number 1 cause of death for people age 45-84 and in the top 4 leading causes of death for other age groups. The number of COVID-19 deaths has declined so far in March, but the disease remains a leading cause of death, generally exceeding 1,000 deaths per day.

Over the course of the pandemic, COVID-19 has frequently ranked among the top 3 leading causes of death in the U.S., with the exception of the summer of 2021. Looking at data on deaths from COVID-19 and other causes, in February 2022, COVID-19 took the lives of about 2,198 people per day on average. By comparison, heart disease, which is typically the number one cause of death in the U.S. each year, led to the death of about 2,400 people per day, and cancer claimed nearly 1,700 lives per day, on average based on data from January 2022. A majority of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have been among unvaccinated people.”

The above are just 3 charts you’ll find in these eye-opening, sobering analyses. I strongly encourage you to review these with your team and your colleagues.