Despite another jump from Covid, deaths remain almost low

“Overall, people who have been through Covid are much, much less sick than even this winter,” said Dr. Megan Rani, an emergency physician at Brown University. “People look like almost different diseases, except for people who are really old, who haven’t been vaccinated or who are immunosuppressed.

Differences in access to booster vaccines and antiviral pills also put some Americans at higher risk. Blacks and Hispanics eligible for reinforcements received lower vaccines than whites, reflecting what some epidemiologists describe as limited efforts in some states to make boosters easily accessible. Patients who do not have primary care physicians or who live far from pharmacies may also struggle to receive antiviral pills.

The number of hospitalized patients with Covid is still growing nationwide, making it likely that the increase in deaths will gradually follow, epidemiologists said. It is unclear how much the wave will hit less vaccinated regions, such as the South, where immunity from past infections has also increased.

“Unfortunately, vaccination rates in many southern states are among the lowest in the country,” said Jason Salemi, a professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida. “But there is certainly a lot of immunity built through a previous infection.”

Although fewer cases have been fatal, an unprecedented number of infections this winter and spring have created significant problems in their own right. In the United States, one in five Covid survivors under the age of 65 has dealt with some version of long-term Covid, a recent study found. Many people have lost their jobs, including doctors, whose absences this spring have periodically strained hospitals that already have staffing problems.

Dr Karan of Stanford said he had persistent symptoms from the January clash with Covid until April. A month later, he was infected again. Since last week, he said, after the subvariant hit California, his team of five doctors at one of the hospitals he works at has been reduced to two due to Covid’s absences, delaying consultations for some patients.