as of December 20, 2021
Number cases: 275 million worldwide; 50.8 million US
Number deaths: 5.35 million worldwide. 805,000+ US (3rd leading cause of death in US in 2020)
Number children orphaned by COVID: 5 million worldwide; 140,000+ US
Current COVID death rate in U.S. (December 2021): 1,500 deaths per day
160,000 unvaccinated Americans have died of COVID since June.
Headline (medpagetoday): In August 2021, unvaccinated people were 6.1 times more likely than fully vaccinated people to test positive.
Headline (NY Times): One in 100 older Americans has died from COVID. For under 65, one in 1,400.
What are the complications of COVID-19? Complications of COVID-19 have included pneumonia (75%), acute respiratory distress syndrome (15%), cardiac injury, arrhythmia, septic shock, liver dysfunction (19%), acute kidney injury, and multi-organ failure, among others. Approximately 5% of patients with COVID-19, and 20% of those hospitalized, wind up in intensive care.
Average cost of COVID hospitalization in NC: Complex $234,988. Noncomplex $44,977. Health insurance waivers in before the vaccine was available are expiring, so patients must pay 20-30% of treatment and hospitalization costs.
Long-term effects of COVID (not just severe cases): https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects/index.html
What is long COVID?
Treatments for COVID: From Harvard Health
Myths & Facts about Vaccines (CDC)
Dr. Uche Blackstock: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/coronavirus-vaccine-uche-blackstock
CDC: Reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination are rare. FDA requires healthcare providers to report any death after COVID-19 vaccination to VAERS, even if it’s unclear whether the vaccine was the cause. Reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused a health problem. More than 485 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States from December 14, 2020, through December 13, 2021. During this time, VAERS received 10,483 reports of death (0.0022%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine.
CONSPIRACY THEORIES & THEORISTS
Chakras, crystals and conspiracy theories: How the wellness industry turned its back on Covid science
https://apple.news/AU3QfKjUkSPSoNOI9MYExzQ
The Virus, the Vaccine and the Dark Side of Wellness – https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a35823360/covid-19-vaccine-qanon-wellness-influencers/
sorryantivaxxer.com – Tracks deaths and hospitalizations
How anti-vaccine activists and the GOP are growing closer – https://www.npr.org/2021/12/06/1057344561/anti-vaccine-activists-political-conference-trump-republicans
Psychology of Conspiracy Theorists
Kareem Adbul-Jabar – https://kareem.substack.com/p/those-who-dont-support-the-covid
And finally, Rick Ross:
And you actually caught Covid too, right?
Mm-hmm. I was down bad. It ain’t no secret, boy. I had that real one. I ain’t had that regular [asymptomatic] shit. I said this before, my dick ain’t get hard for two weeks, man. I had never experienced no shit like that.
So when you go through an experience as serious as that, when it comes to the vaccine, where do you land on that?
You got to understand, when they first told me about the vaccine, I was like, “Man, y’all crazy. Rozay ain’t…” But as I moved around, the things I saw, travelling—because I still was going into clubs. You go in the club, it’s two women with a mask on, I’m still watching people pass hookahs around. But me, since the pandemic, I ain’t never let nobody hit my blunt. And I just really thought about my mom, my sister, I had really avoided going to see my mom because of the pandemic. At some point, I wanted to be around her, and she was really concerned with it. So it was all good. I let her know, “It’s on you. I’m with whatever you with. If we getting the vaccine, we getting the vaccine. If we not, we not.”
children's books by the weatherfords 