COVID-19 deaths within the U.S. have climbed to a median of greater than 1,900 a day for the primary time since early March, with consultants saying the virus is preying largely on a distinct group: 71 million unvaccinated Americans.

The more and more deadly flip has crammed hospitals, difficult the beginning of the varsity 12 months, delayed the return to workplaces and demoralized well being care staff.

“It is devastating,” said Dr. Dena Hubbard, a pediatrician in the Kansas City, Missouri, area who has cared for babies delivered prematurely by cesarean section in a last-ditch effort to save their mothers, some of whom died. For health workers, the deaths, combined with misinformation and disbelief about the virus, have been “heart-wrenching, soul-crushing.”

Twenty-two people died in one week alone at CoxHealth hospitals in the Springfield-Branson area, a level almost as high as that of all of Chicago. West Virginia has had more deaths in the first three weeks of September — 340 — than in the previous three months combined. Georgia is averaging 125 dead per day, more than California or other more populous states.

“I’ve got to tell you, a guy has got to wonder if we are ever going to see the end of it or not,” said Collin Follis, who is the coroner in Missouri’s Madison County and works at a funeral home.

The nation was stunned back in December when it was witnessing 3,000 deaths a day. But that was when almost no one was vaccinated.

Now, nearly 64% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. And yet, average deaths per day have climbed 40% over the past two weeks, from 1,387 to 1,947, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Health experts say the vast majority of the hospitalized and dead have been unvaccinated. While some vaccinated people have suffered breakthrough infections, those tend to be mild.

The number of vaccine-eligible Americans who have yet to get a shot has been put at more than 70 million.

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“There is a very real risk you’ll end up in the hospital or even in the obituary pages,” Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, chief medical officer for the Ohio Department of Health, said to the unvaccinated. “Don’t become a statistic when there is a simple, safe and effective alternative to go out today and get vaccinated.”

Many low-vaccination communities also have high rates of conditions like obesity and diabetes, said Dr. William Moss of Johns Hopkins. And that combination — along with the more contagious delta variant — has proved lethal.

“I think this is a real failure of society and our most egregious sin to be at this stage where we have hospitals overwhelmed, ICUs overwhelmed and hitting this mark in terms of deaths per day,” Moss lamented.

New cases of the coronavirus per day in the U.S. have dropped since the start of September and are now running at about 139,000. But deaths typically take longer to fall because victims often linger for weeks before succumbing.

In Kansas, 65-year-old cattleman Mike Limon thought he had beaten COVID-19 and went back to work for a few days. But the virus had “fried” his lungs and he died final week, stated his grandson, Cadin Limon, 22, of Wichita.

He stated his grandfather did not get vaccinated for concern of a dangerous response, and he hasn’t gotten the shot both for a similar motive, although severe uncomfortable side effects have proved extraordinarily uncommon.

He described his grandfather as a “man of religion.”

“Sixty-five continues to be fairly younger,” the young man said. “I know that. It seems sudden and unexpected, but COVID didn’t surprise God. His death wasn’t a surprise to God. The God I serve is bigger than that.”

Cases are falling in West Virginia from pandemic highs, however deaths and hospitalizations are anticipated to proceed growing for as many as six extra weeks, stated retired National Guard Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, who leads the state’s coronavirus job power.

Dr. Greg Martin, who’s president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and practices largely at Grady Hospital in Atlanta, stated the workers is buckling beneath the pressure.

“I believe everybody in 2020 thought we’d get via this. No one actually thought that we’d nonetheless be seeing this the identical method in 2021,” he said.

In Oklahoma, Hillcrest South Hospital in Tulsa is among several medical centers around the country to add temporary morgues. Deaths are at an all-time high there, at three to four times the number it would see in a non-COVID-19 world, said Bennett Geister, hospital CEO.

He said the staff there, too, is worn out.

“They didn’t sign up to be ICU nurses only to have people pass away on them,” he stated. “They signed as much as be ICU nurses to take folks to restoration and heal folks from the brink of demise.”



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