January 30, 2021
The ADPH dashboard was not updated today due to maintenance, so there will be no new data to digest. Rather than skip tomorrow and Monday, I will instead write a modified note today followed by in-depth analysis tomorrow. So much for the best laid plans of mice and men ….
According to Worldometer’s COVID-19 dashboard, the U.S. is closing in on 27 million cases and it surpassed 450,000 deaths today. Alabama ranks 24th in the nation in population (just ahead of Louisiana and behind South Carolina). Alabama also ranks 20th in total cases and 17th in total deaths since the pandemic began. On a per capita basis, overall Alabama ranks 13th in cases (just ahead of Indiana and behind Wisconsin) and 16th in deaths.
In the last week, Alabama’s new daily cases rose 5.1% compared to the prior week, deaths rose 136.9% but hospitalizations fell 16.8%. The average positivity rate for the week was 32% (including probables), higher than every state but Pennsylvania. Based on data collected last week, Alabama ranks 8th in new cases per capita and 1st in the nation in per capita deaths. Our rank in per capita hospitalizations is now tied for 7th with South Carolina.
To a certain extent, a state or community plays the hand it is dealt. For instance, last spring, the tri-state area surrounding NYC, as well as states like Washington (the earliest state to be infected) and Louisiana (victim of Mardi Gras), were slammed before they ever knew what hit them. Alabama was one of the lucky states back then, like many other Deep South states, but we paid for our complacency when summer arrived and the entire southern tier burst aflame with infection. Then, last fall, it was the political battleground states’ turn to suffer, particularly in the Upper Midwest. For the last 6 weeks, there is probably no state that has fared worse overall than Alabama.
As we travel down Memory Lane, be reminded that we are in this pandemic together. No state is an island (except Hawaii which has benefited by that status). When the virus takes root in one region of the country, it does not remain there. At the top of the list of all the mistakes made in combating this crisis has been the failure to acknowledge this important lesson: America is at its best when we work together to solve a problem.
Pitting states and regions against each other simply never works. It especially does not work for those who live in a state, like Alabama, that lacks the resources of many other states. That is what these state rankings tell us. In every category that matters, Alabama is doing worse than the national average - cases, testing, hospitalizations and deaths. The category that matters most now is vaccinations, and once again, we are at or near the bottom.
I sometimes wonder where we would be if, like 39 other states, we had expanded Medicaid when we had a chance 10 years ago. Would it have made a difference? Perhaps we will never know for sure, but when this pandemic is in the rear view mirror, we need to start asking those questions.
“I sometimes wonder where we would be if, like 39 other states, we had expanded Medicaid when we had a chance 10 years ago. Would it have made a difference? “
I wonder if the US had a Universal Healthcare system like every other major industrialized country on earth and whether would it have made a difference? OF COURSE
I wonder if the US paid their people to stay home and aided businesses like every other major industrialized country on earth and whether it would have made a difference? Would we be like New Zealand or Australia or Singapore,etc,etc and be back to normal? OF COURSE
We are the only major industrialized country on EARTH that does not have universal healthcare. Unacceptable
We are the only major industrialized country on EARTH that has not paid its people monthly stimuluses so that we can stay home safely. Unacceptable
We have handled this worse than any other major industrialized country and this is due to BOTH parties being beholden to their big money corporate donors. The US is an oligarchy and this pandemic has made it even more obvious than before.
Now we have a new President who has lied just like Trump about stimulus payments and whose covid plan is unfortunately just like Trumps. Biden wants to open the schools? Unacceptable. His vaccine rollout plan of 1 million a day is literally what we are putting out now. He said $2k would go out the door immediately which he said AFTER the $600 checks had gone out. He LIED just like the orange liar.
90% of Democrat voters support Medicare for All yet Biden said he would veto it. This is not surprising considering Joe Biden took more lobbyist money in 2020 than any other politician. Mitch McConnell was #2. This is public record. You can see this at https://www.fec.gov/ and https://www.opensecrets.org/
I find that many people blindly support one party or the other. I support neither as neither represents me a working class voter. I study voting records and the donor financials. They always tell the real story.