WORLDOMETER COVID-19 Deaths in USA 1/14/2022: 2,139 with 804,877 new cases

Worldometer ^ | January 14, 2022

[monkeyshine]

there is no point in counting deaths

Sorry to disagree doctor, but that's preposterous. Death is the only outcome that cannot be debated, that has no possible biases and is not subjective. Unless of course they are counting death with covid as death from covid. My opinion, we should not be changing the metrics at all at this point. Let it play out. It will eventually pass and in retrospective looks we shouldn't have to add the complexity of determining the hows and whys outcomes were tabulated at different points in time.

[roving]

If they are going to count them, they need to count them the right way. Not blame homicides and car accidents on covid

[roving]

I just read about a woman killed in a pile up. She will be added to the covid death count

[Paul R.]

Any guesses as to whether Omicron has reached a major Russian city or populaton it had not, previously?

(Sort of like some states here in the US “lagging”.)

[Paul R.]

Obviously they are just starting Omicron.

I retract my previous comment. Russia's last peak predated SA's Omicron peak, and the high fatalities would certainly indicate their previous wave was Delta. (Like some other countries, Russia's data indicates Delta's CFR among the unvaccinated was higher than "original COVID's" CFR among the unvaccinated. But, that's a separate discussion.)

I would expect Omicron's fatalities to be lower in Russia than Delta's were. BUT, their equivalents to ER's and clinics will likely be swamped with moderate cases. Russia has had almost no "breaks" in high case numbers for over a year - their health care workforce must truly be exhausted...

[Paul R.]

I don't think the primary danger from Omicron is direct fatalities or fatalities caused by triggered comorbidities or complications. Instead, there will be some effect of care not given for other causes, with Omicron really slamming ER's and clinics.

And... the incredible virion numbers increase the chances of a mutation set that retains the R0 and immunity hopping of Omicron, and regains the CFR of Delta. Many misunderstand: A CFR of under 5% combined with the manner and timing of COVID's transmission puts essentially no genetic or "evolutionary" pressure on COVID to NOT jump back up in CFR. Think of it similarly to flu: Eventually a nastier variant will arise. Hopefully we can adapt.

[BeauBo]

“ Russia’s last peak predated SA’s Omicron peak, and the high fatalities would certainly indicate their previous wave was Delta”

My impression is that the worse the Delta wave was in an area, the milder their Omicron wave will be.

[Owen]

I have not found any source of geographic detail in Russia for death counts. Don’t know why the inflection

[MinorityRepublican]

Seems like in Russia, the only reporting that gets done is when a patient gets admitted to the emergency room. So their case numbers are relatively low but their deaths are high.

Here in the U.S. we are testing like crazy. But a lot of it is not necessary, if you can just stay at home and monitor your symptoms for a couple of days without having to take a test.

[Owen]

It is largely why I have ignored cases from day 1. Dead is dead, Excess Deaths of all causes are good quality.

Everything else has questions and doubt. Is that a false positive? Why did he go to get tested? Was he tested only because he broke a bone and needed the hospital?

But dead is dead.

[MinorityRepublican]

If you look at all deaths, we had nearly 3.4 million in 2020. From 2017-2019, we had 2.8. So far it looks like we will hit 3.4 again for 2021, maybe more. In 2020, we weren’t hit until March. That’s not the case in 2021.

[Paul R.]

My impression is that the worse the Delta wave was in an area, the milder their Omicron wave will be.

Well, that's not what I was looking at, but, one would hope so. The US possibly not being a good example, at least not in absolute case numbers. Relatively, France has a very high Omicron spike - perhaps a better example?

Russia will be very interesting. I don't much like their leadership, but, their people need a break!

[Paul R.]

Not bad points.

However, in an entire country, barring major policy or testing shifts, “errors” will largely factor out of cases’ curve velocity and acceleration, leaving those as useful information. Large changes in CFR are also useful info. For example, if infectiousness / case numbers surge by 10x with a new variant, but fatalities only increase 2x, that’s very useful info.

[Owen]

Agreed.

But there are other variables. Maybe the biggest is vax duration. The vax loses its defense against infection before it loses defense against death. So a variant appearing nearly a year after vax can spike cases but hold deaths down.
The stats will then not describe variant performance.