This morning the total number of deaths in the US from Covid-19 was said to be 994. That sounds kind of low, since influenza has already killed 30,000 this season. In the places where coronavirus has hit hard, it's much worse than the flu, in New York and New Orleans for instance. People are much sicker and the whole healthcare system, including emergency medical services, is stressed to breaking. We know that coronavirus is more severe and more contagious and more deadly than the flu by at least a factor of 10. Why are the numbers of deaths presently so low? The thing that nobody is talking about with regard to Covid deaths is that our data about who has died is going to lag by weeks, months or even years and will probably fail to represent all of the deaths for which Covid is responsible. Why is this? People are dying at home of Covid. How do I know this? Because 25% of people die in their own homes. People with symptoms of coronavirus are being encouraged to stay at hom...
The cost of health care in the US is higher than anywhere else in the world, and yet we are not healthier than our peer nations. In fact, in terms of such measures as infant mortality and life span, we don't measure up. Why is this? Many people involved in providing or receiving care have some pretty good ideas about what costs so much, and what we can do to reduce costs and improve quality. Sharing these stories is an important step in creating affordable universal health care.