Charting how Covid took 1 million lives in the U.S.

CDC numbers tell a different story by vaccination status. (J. Emory Parker/STAT)

Officially, the U.S. will almost certainly record its one millionth Covid-19 death in the next two weeks. In reality, this milestone was likely unofficially crossed days or weeks ago. Humans aren’t equipped to fully grasp loss on this scale, let alone a global total estimated to be as high as 14.9 million. All along, STAT’s J. Emory Parker has looked at the ocean of public health data gathered as 1 million individual tragedies rippled through our collective lives. He charts five different pandemics, depending on who you were and when and where you lived. "These five patterns show how SARS-CoV-2 exacted a toll few could scarcely imagine in the spring of 2020," he writes. "The why of 1 million is a story of both scientific achievement which saved some lives and of systemic failures which cost far too many." Read more.

Lest we forget: The faces of Covid

(STAT/HANDOUT)

Across the U.S., more than 1 million family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and complete strangers are now gone, ripped from our lives by an unsparing pandemic that has battered us for two full years, Alex Goldstein, creator of the social media platform FacesOfCovid, writes in an essay published in STAT in conjunction with the Boston Globe. “We are justifiably exhausted,” he says. But “we have a responsibility to remember the lost.” Their lives had dignity, meaning, and worth, making them more than just a statistic or another grim milestone, he reminds us. Behind the cascade of data about ventilators, ICU beds, hospitalizations, and deaths were real people with rich, textured, beautiful lives: “They were someone’s rock, and the center of someone’s world. They loved and were loved,” he writes. “We remember them to show their families that they are not alone.” Read more.

People from certain racial and ethnic groups should be screened for diabetes at lower BMI, study says

Physician guidelines that ignore patients’ race and ethnicity could do more harm than good detecting diabetes in people of color, new research in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests. Instead, people from certain racial and ethnic groups should be screened for diabetes at lower BMI than non-Hispanic white Americans — 18.5 for Black and Hispanic Americans, and 20 for Asian Americans — contradicting recent USPSTF guidelines. It’s tricky to reaffirm the role of race and ethnicity when medicine is trying to rid itself of race-based tools that have contributed to health disparities. But the new study’s authors say a one-size-fits-all approach to screening, when diabetes is two to four times more prevalent and more deadly in Black, Hispanic, and Asian Americans, is likely to result in underdiagnosis of the disease, and widen health gaps. STAT’s Isabella Cueto explains.

Closer look: Two years on, covering the pandemic sparks both hope and concern

STAT senior writer Helen Branswell was one of the first reporters to recognize that a new virus in China could mean global trouble. “I knew it was going to be bad, but I don't think I would have ever thought that the United States would have suffered a million deaths,” she says in a video interview by STAT's Alex Hogan. Among lessons learned: Even before vaccines arrived, the world had tools it could use, such as masks and cutting close personal interactions. And then vaccines arrived, a "stunning" 11 months after the virus’s genetic sequences was posted. “I shudder to think if we'd had to go through Delta and had to go through Omicron without vaccine.” Helen worries now about misinformation and about people's willingness to follow public health advice designed to help them. But she also thinks we’re probably past the worst of the pandemic. “I have hope,” she says. “I also have concerns.”

People hunting for Paxlovid turn to telehealth

After months of shortages, pharmacies across the United States are being stocked with drugs to treat Covid-19. Now, the primary bottleneck has become getting a prescription — and patients and public health agencies are looking to telehealth for help. Last week, Massachusetts launched free televisits for state residents who have tested positive for Covid-19, including home delivery of Paxlovid, Pfizer’s oral antiviral, if prescribed. New York City has filled more than 16,000 courses of the drug through its home delivery service, 2,100 of which started with a free telehealth visit with NYC Health + Hospitals. And a growing number of virtual care companies are promoting televisits as a first-line resource. Proponents cite virtual visits as a strategy to simultaneously keep sick patients at home and speed access to the drugs. STAT’s Katie Palmer explores barriers and concerns.

What the end of a public health emergency might mean for people with Medicaid

Winding down the country’s “public health emergency” declared to combat Covid could create new headaches, as STAT’s Rachel Cohrs told us in her March special report. Two new analyses released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation conclude that between 5.3 million and 14.2 million low-income people could lose Medicaid coverage after the emergency ends and with it, a pandemic requirement barring states from moving people off Medicaid rolls in exchange for extra federal dollars. Total Medicaid/CHIP enrollment jumped by 15.7 million through January, most of which the KFF researchers attribute to the lack of churn from people phasing in and out of public insurance. Still, whenever the emergency, in effect through mid-July 2022, lifts, a large share of non-elderly adults and children could be lose coverage, even if many continue to be eligible.

What to read around the web today

What you need to know when you give birth in a country with rising maternal mortality rates. ProPublica
National addiction treatment locator has outdated data and other critical flaws. Kaiser Health News
Flagship Pioneering hires lobbyists, a first among biotech venture firms. STAT+
Doctors Without Borders addresses charges of racism within its ranks. NPR
Transgender treatment, doctors threatened by new Alabama law. Associated Press