Tag: COVID-19 disparities

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Healthcare Medicare-for-All, single-payer healthcare, universal healthcare, healthcare disparities, healthcare inequality, corporate Democrats, healthcare insurance

US Ranks 36th Out of 37 Nations on COVID-19 Mortality

COVID-Mort-by-Country-BMJ

https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj-2021-066768

A new study quantifies the loss in life expectancy due to COVID-19 in nations around the world. The US is in the worst tier, with a drop of nearly two years. Blame lays at the feet of mishandling by Trump, but also long-term degradation of public health and primary care access. Both must be rebuilt.

From abstract:

 

“Reduction in life expectancy was estimated as the difference between observed and expected life expectancy in 2020 using the Lee-Carter model. . . .

 

Results: Reduction in life expectancy in men and women was observed in all the countries studied except New Zealand, Taiwan, and Norway, where there was a gain in life expectancy in 2020. No evidence was found of a change in life expectancy in Denmark, Iceland, and South Korea. The highest reduction in life expectancy was observed in Russia (men: −2.33; women: −2.14), the United States (men: −2.27; women: −1.61), Bulgaria (men: −1.96; women: −1.37), Lithuania (men: −1.83; women: −1.25), Chile (men: −1.64; women: −0.88), and Spain (men: −1.35; women: −1.13)”

 

[Note: All figures are in years; confidence intervals deleted to enhance readability]

COVID-Mort-by-Country-BMJ

Comment and Graph by David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler via http://healthjusticemonitor.org

COVID-19 Death Rates and a Healthcare System Designed to Profit From Illness and Suffering:

These data provide further evidence of the criminal mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. By another measure – years of life lost per 100,000 population – the US was better only than Bulgaria, Russia and Lithuania. Donald Trump’s denialism and malfeasance bear much of the blame for the US’ sorry record on COVID-19. But the gutting of public health capacity, which occurred under both Democrats and Republicans, and our defective health care system, which obstructs access to care and discourages trusting relationships, were and remain major contributors.

6% of health spending should go for public health, double the current proportion. Further, we need to erase access barriers, and build a real and universal primary care infrastructure.

The Current U.S. Healthcare System Seeks to Discard Those Most in Need and is Inherently Discriminatory:

The Democrats, not Trump, continue to lead efforts to dump COVID-19 positive hospital overflow to willing privately-operated nursing homes. And, they are also involved in data coverup and tactics of failing to dis-aggregate data. We know this because of involvement in dealing with Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and the high-death rates at Kei-Ail Los Angeles, a nursing facility traditionally in service of Japanese American and Japanese seniors in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-01/hospital-transfers-spark-covid-surge-la-nursing-homes

See more at https://saveourseniors.network

 

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Healthcare

The First Year of COVID: Filipinos Were Among Hardest Hit, But Hidden by Data

https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/year-one-covid-19-death-toll/the-first-year-of-covid-filipinos-were-among-hardest-hit-but-hidden-by-data/

Filipinos had the second highest mortality rate in the county during the pandemic’s first year — but that cost was largely hidden because the county reported cases and deaths among Filipinos within a broad category of Asian Americans, rather than breaking them out specifically. 

Maya Srikrishnan

Voices of San Diego

In San Diego County, Filipinos accounted for about 7 percent of the 4,000 COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic’s first year, while they make up roughly 6.5 percent of the county population. That made Filipinos the third largest nationality for pandemic deaths in the county during that time.  

Filipinos faced a unique set of risks. Many Filipinos work in the health care sector or in other essential, high-risk employment, like in assisted living facilities. They also tend to live in multigenerational households, and suffer from certain health conditions that increase morbidity with COVID, like diabetes and hypertension. The majority of Filipinos who died, 92 percent, were immigrants, while only 8 percent were U.S.-born. 

But because Filipino deaths and cases weren’t specifically tracked by the county – grouped instead with other Asian nationalities, which had lower numbers of cases and deaths – community advocates and researchers said that the community didn’t get the support and resources it needed. 

Read the Voices of San Diego article HERE.

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Healthcare

The Disproportionate Impact of COVID-19 on Pacific Islander Communities

Take a listen: https://theworld.org/media/2021-01-29/pacific-islanders-hit-hard-covid-19

‘Alisi Tulua, project director of the Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander COVID-19 Data Policy Lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, tells Marco Werman that while California is easing its lockdown restrictions, Native Hawaiian and Pacific islanders in the state are still experiencing high infection rates.

Please visit SoCal PIRCT to learn more: https://www.pacificislanderhealth.org/

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