The COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the world, with the United States still recording over 100 deaths daily. Despite the World Health Organization and the U.S. government ending the public health emergency, the virus is still killing people, and the vulnerable population remains at significant risk. Long COVID is also a severe outcome that people are not making enough space for, as an estimated 26 million Americans are living with it. Unfortunately, the prevailing attitude is that people need to learn to live with the current level of risk, which is a slap in the face to COVID grievers who have already paid the price. It minimizes the continuing loss of life and the fact that many people are still dying traumatic and unnecessary deaths. The abandoning of protective measures also fails to recognize the catastrophic risks of long COVID and the experiences of those living with it.
The pandemic has caused significant damage, with over 1.1 million Americans dying from it over the past three years. Experts say that the official numbers are likely underestimated due to errors in death certificate reporting. Masks, vaccines, and social distancing have all been shown to significantly lower the risk of spreading and catching the virus. The disease is preventable, and new drugs have also made it possible for infected people to survive COVID.
The pandemic has pushed human development into reverse, causing a historic drop in life expectancy. Americans, on average, were dying three years sooner by the end of 2021 than they were before the pandemic, with life expectancy dropping from 79 years to 76 years, the largest decline in a century. Globally, the COVID death toll is nearing 7 million, with each person who died passing away ten years younger than they otherwise would have.
COVID disproportionately kills Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous people and those with less access to health care. Racialized groups are dying from COVID at younger ages. COVID advocates and Americans who have lost loved ones to the disease say our willingness to accept these facts and the current mortality rate amounts to health-based discrimination. The virus is still killing people, and it is preventable, making it even more tragic that it continues to claim lives.