In The Last Two Weeks, The US Has Seen Its Five Deadliest Days Since The Start Of The Pandemic

COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the world. According to data from John Hopkins University, there have been more than 365,300 deaths in the United States. On Thursday, more than 4,000 COVID related deaths were reported. The holidays are being blamed for the rise in deaths.

“Cases and percent positivity are rising, as are inpatient and intensive care unit beds occupied by those with COVID-19. Regrettably, deaths from COVID-19 follow these trends,” said Dr. Cara Christ, director of Arizona’s Department of Health Services.

According to projections from the University of Washington’s Institution for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 115,000 people may lose their lives in the next four weeks. California reported more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths in two days. There are nearly 23,000 patients in the hospital suffering from COVID-19 in California. A person dies every eight minutes from the virus in Los Angeles County, according to the county.

The COVID-19 vaccine was approved several weeks ago and many feel as if the COVID-19 vaccine process is rolling out too slowly. According to CNN, Dr. Anthony Fauci believes that it will take a couple of weeks to catch up with earlier projections of the vaccine distribution.

“I think it would be fair to just observe what happens in the next couple of weeks,” Dr. Fauci said to NPR. “If we don’t catch up on what the original goal was, then we really need to make some changes about what we’re doing.”

The United States government said that 20 million people would have received their first dose by the end of December. So far, more than 21.4 million doses have been distributed and more than 5.9 million people have gotten their first dose, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We just need to give a little bit slack — not a lot — but enough to say, well, we’re past the holiday season, now let’s really turn the afterburners on,” Dr. Fauci said.

Some people believe that the government set its goal too high.

“We overpromised and underdelivered as a nation,” Dr. Steve Stack, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, said at a briefing, “We only got a third of what we thought we were going to get based on the initial modeling.”

“Had we just projected realistic quantities, the public wouldn’t have seen this as a shortcoming — we would have recognized it for the incredible accomplishment it was to have even this much vaccine this fast,” Dr. Stack said.

There are many challenges that are being faced. According to CNN, some health leaders say that states need more money and are understaffed. Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania Secretary of Health, believes that the $340 million that states, cities, and territories have received is not enough.

“That is clearly insufficient to accomplishing what we’re trying to accomplish,” Dr. Levine said.

In December, President Donald Trump signed a $900 billion COVID-19 relief package that highlighted how funds will be distributed to vaccinate the nation.