Mary Wilson
Well-known member
Published: October 20, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0001173
Peter J. Hotez
The United States of America leads all high-income nations in COVID-19 deaths, even though as a nation at had the greatest access to antiviral vaccines and therapeutics. To understand this disconnect we can look to the COVID-19 deaths and disability in the State of Texas. Because of COVID-19, Texas is enduring one of the greatest human tragedies in its 186-year history. It did not have to be this way.
According to Texas Department of State Health Services and the major publicly accessible disease trackers from Johns Hopkins University, the University of Washington-Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (UW-IHME), and The New York Times, the number of deaths from COVID-19 in my state of Texas has reached 90,000, as of September 1, 2022 [1–4]. These numbers place Texas just behind California (by only 3,000–4,000) as the US state with the most COVID deaths, but with a Texas population estimated at 29 million compared to 40 million people living in California the proportion of Texas deaths is far higher. Other comparisons—the nation of Canada with 36 million people suffered an estimated 43,000 deaths, while Australia with 25 million experienced 12,000 deaths. It is also worth noting that Texas, Canada, and Australia also share economies of roughly the same size, with a gross domestic product between $1–2 trillion.
To understand why Texas suffered 2–3 times more deaths compared to nations of similar populations and economies, we can look to the pattern of Texas deaths during the pandemic. By May 1, 2021, the Biden White House had made it possible for every adult American to receive a COVID-19 vaccination [5]. However, as shown in Fig 1, the COVID-19 deaths in Texas continued even after vaccines were widely available. ...
https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0001173
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0001173
Peter J. Hotez
The United States of America leads all high-income nations in COVID-19 deaths, even though as a nation at had the greatest access to antiviral vaccines and therapeutics. To understand this disconnect we can look to the COVID-19 deaths and disability in the State of Texas. Because of COVID-19, Texas is enduring one of the greatest human tragedies in its 186-year history. It did not have to be this way.
According to Texas Department of State Health Services and the major publicly accessible disease trackers from Johns Hopkins University, the University of Washington-Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (UW-IHME), and The New York Times, the number of deaths from COVID-19 in my state of Texas has reached 90,000, as of September 1, 2022 [1–4]. These numbers place Texas just behind California (by only 3,000–4,000) as the US state with the most COVID deaths, but with a Texas population estimated at 29 million compared to 40 million people living in California the proportion of Texas deaths is far higher. Other comparisons—the nation of Canada with 36 million people suffered an estimated 43,000 deaths, while Australia with 25 million experienced 12,000 deaths. It is also worth noting that Texas, Canada, and Australia also share economies of roughly the same size, with a gross domestic product between $1–2 trillion.
To understand why Texas suffered 2–3 times more deaths compared to nations of similar populations and economies, we can look to the pattern of Texas deaths during the pandemic. By May 1, 2021, the Biden White House had made it possible for every adult American to receive a COVID-19 vaccination [5]. However, as shown in Fig 1, the COVID-19 deaths in Texas continued even after vaccines were widely available. ...
https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0001173