<
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-05-20/covid-continues-to-out-kill-influenza-prognosis>
"Hi, it’s Jason in Melbourne. Try as we might to forget about Covid-19, it’s
still not “just another flu.” Before I explain... "
"Covid deaths peaked at close to 26,000 a week in the US in January 2021.
Thankfully, its grim toll has diminished significantly since then. But a year
after the pandemic disease lost its emergency status, it continues to kill
hundreds of people each week in the US and around the world.
Mortality data for 2024 are still emerging and incomplete, but the numbers show
deaths from Covid remain much higher than those from the flu, to which it’s
often compared.
Epidemiologist Ziyad Al-Aly began analyzing millions of patient electronic
health records four years ago to understand Covid’s effects. I wrote last week
about his latest study, published in the journal
JAMA.
It found that patients hospitalized from October 2023 to March 2024 for Covid
had a 35% higher risk of dying within 30 days than those hospitalized for flu.
Al-Aly, who was listed this month among
TIME magazine’s 100 most influential
people in health in 2024, did the same analysis the previous year and found
that Covid posed a 60% higher mortality risk than flu during the 2022-2023
season.
Although the death rate among Covid patients is declining — dropping to 5.7% in
the latest period from 6% a year earlier — Al-Aly’s research underscores how
much more damage the coronavirus can afflict on the body than flu. "
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: May 23, 2024
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-104782141
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
