Covid kills nearly 10,000 in a month as holidays fuel spread, WHO says

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

 

January 11, 2024

 

Almost 10,000 coronavirus deaths were reported in December, and admissions to hospitals and intensive care units surged, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said — with data indicating that holiday gatherings fueled increased transmission of the virus.

 

“Although covid-19 is no longer a global health emergency, the virus is still circulating, changing and killing,” Tedros said at a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday.

 

There was a 42 percent increase in hospitalizations and a 62 percent increase in ICU admissions from the previous month. Trends are based on data reported to the WHO from fewer than 50 countries, mostly in Europe and the Americas, said Tedros, who noted that this is not the full picture.

 

(more)

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/01/11/covid-deaths-holidays-world-health-organization/

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus' video news conference addressing global health issues, including the COVID update starting at about 10 minutes, 30 seconds into the video.

 

 

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Interestingly, the WHO's last regular monthly report Dec. 22 on COVID -- covering the period Nov. 20 to December 17 -- reported only 3000+ new deaths from just 50 countries still reporting COVID deaths, and said that was a decline of 8 percent from the prior month.

 

So given their report above of almost 10,000 new COVID deaths for the month of December, the latter part of December must have really seen a surge in new deaths.

 

"Globally, the number of new cases increased by 52% during the 28-day period of 20 November to 17 December 2023 as compared to the previous 28-day period, with over 850 000 new cases reported. The number of new deaths decreased by 8% as compared to the previous 28-day period, with over 3000 new fatalities reported. [emphasis added]"

 

"During the period from 13 November to 10 December 2023, over 118 000 new COVID-19 hospitalizations and over 1600 new intensive care unit (ICU) admissions have been recorded with an overall increase of 23% and 51% respectively amongst the countries reporting consistently within the current and past reporting periods."

 

https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/covid-19-epidemiological-update---22-december-2023

 

As they always do now, the WHO also footnoted their statistics above by noting that they only reflect a partial snapshot of the global COVID situation, as many countries have stopped regularly reporting their COVID deaths, hospitalizations, cases, etc, meaning the COVID impacts in all the other countries aren't being captured in the WHO's reports.

 

 

Edited January 13 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Transcript of Ghebreyesus' remarks:

 

https://www.who.int/news-room/speeches/item/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing---10-january-2024

 

Partial excerpt:

 

"Although 10,000 deaths a month is far less than the peak of the pandemic, this level of preventable death is not acceptable.

 

We continue to call on governments to maintain surveillance and sequencing, and to ensure access to affordable and reliable tests, treatments and vaccines for their populations.

 

And we continue to call on individuals to be vaccinated, to test, to wear masks where needed and to ensure crowded indoor spaces are well ventilated."

 

[Amethyst]

A post with an unsourced and unsubstantiated claim has been removed for contravening the forum's Community Standards.

 

"In factual areas such as news forums and current affairs topics member content that is claimed or portrayed as a fact should be supported by a link to a relevant reputable source."

[connda]

Reactionary:  "Put on a mask, take the shots, live in fear, don't ask questions.  And comply."

Analytical:  "10,000 deaths a month" out of a population of 8,100,000,000.  So you have a 0.0001234567901% chance of dying of Covid.
Or by comparison:
According to the CDC¹ "3,700 people are killed globally in crashes involving cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles, trucks, or pedestrians" on a daily basis.  So that would be 111,000 road deaths a months if you do the math.  Now there is something to worry about.

I'm more worried about traffic fatalities, especially considering that Thailand has the lion's share of road deaths per-capita globally.
Again, for the sake of comparison, traffic fatalities in the UK (with a population similar to Thailand's) are about 1/10th that of Thailand's annual road cull  (1800 vs 20000 road deaths) ²

Which sorta goes to show that the phenomenon we are witnessing may actually resolved down to the fact that more people in the world suffer from Mysophobia (irrational fear of germs and pathogens) then they are from Amaxophobia (fear of driving).  Of course the world was pelted with an unending stream of news about how "Covid is gonna getcha," for the last 4 years so we now have a large percentage of the population who now have been psychologically damaged and who should probably be consulting psychological services regarding their debilitating Covid-based Mysophobia and attempting to resolve the deep-seated fear of SARS-Cov-2 that has literally destroyed the manner in which many of these members of society live.

"Fear is the mind-killer."
--Frank Herbert, Dune
It also makes it easier to control the population. 

Citations:
^1. https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index.html

² https://news.sky.com/story/killer-roads-why-thailand-has-one-of-the-worst-death-rates-from-driving-in-the-world-12051841
 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Nothing to do with fear. It's just commonsense awareness and precaution.

 

All of the above is why:

--I don't drive a car or a motorcycle while living in Thailand, especially at night,

--why I use HEPA air purifiers at home, and

--why since COVID I've been vaccinated and consistently worn N95 masks when outside or around others.

 

COVID is a potential killer, especially for older folks. Thailand's roads are killers. And air pollution in Thailand is a silent killer. I take prudent measures to protect against all those risks pertinent to living in Thailand, and still manage to live a pretty normal life.

 

 

Edited January 13 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

41 minutes ago, connda said:

Analytical:  "10,000 deaths a month" out of a population of 8,100,000,000.  So you have a 0.0001234567901% chance of dying of Covid.

 

Your analysis and presumptions above are flawed, because as the above news reports make clear, the WHO's latest report on COVID deaths is only based on reporting from about 50 countries out of around 200 in the world... As the WHO noted, many countries simply aren't regularly reporting their key COVID stats anymore, or rarely if ever did, such as China.

 

So the WHO's reported data is a partial glimpse and indicator of what's going on with COVID right now... not by any means a full accounting or complete picture.

 

 

Edited January 13 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Trippy]

WHO has lost all credibility to me, I don't believe anything they say.

[johng]

2 minutes ago, Trippy said:

WHO has lost all credibility to me

 

One of my favourite WHO tracks  "Wont get fooled again"

 

"I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half-alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie
Do you? ?

[impulse]

13 minutes ago, Trippy said:

WHO has lost all credibility to me, I don't believe anything they say.

 

I believe their raw data.  And for that reason, I appreciate when TGJIBKK posts it.   I still try to check the raw data with other sources to see if it jibes.

 

Their analysis, conclusions and recommendations, not so much.  And they'll have to hold a gun to my head to get a 3rd jab in me.  My quality of life took a nosedive after Pfizer #2 and still hasn't recovered.  Sadly, like a lot of folks, that reluctance has transferred to other vaccines as well.

 

 

 

[ukrules]

I would like to see a comparison for the month of Decembers Covid death figures each year from 2020 to 2023 inclusive to see if it's getting better or worse.

 

Comparing December with November is nonsense.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

This would appear to be some further detail from the WHO on their announcement of nearly 10,000 global COVID deaths reported last month during December, recognizing that only about 50 of the 200 or so countries in the world are reporting such data to the WHO.

 

 

China is further down on the list with a reported 8 COVID deaths for the month, if anyone wants to believe that.

 

The U.K. shows as zero on the WHO's list, even though the UK does track and report its COVID deaths, and lately had been reporting weekly totals in the COVID 200 deaths range.

 

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths?areaType=overview&areaName=United Kingdom

 

 

Note: the reference above in the first WHO graphic to the December COVID deaths total being 1,500 less than the prior month likely is an artifact of the reporting data for the most recent week, the last week of December, being incomplete, as the WHO notes in a footnote on the following chart below.

 

 

 

https://data.who.int/dashboards/covid19/deaths?n=c

 

 

Edited January 13 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[connda]

On 1/13/2024 at 2:34 PM, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Your analysis and presumptions above are flawed, because as the above news reports make clear, the WHO's latest report on COVID deaths is only based on reporting from about 50 countries out of around 200 in the world... As the WHO noted, many countries simply aren't regularly reporting their key COVID stats anymore, or rarely if ever did, such as China.

 

So the WHO's reported data is a partial glimpse and indicator of what's going on with COVID right now... not by any means a full accounting or complete picture.

 

 

It will be years before we get anything resembling a "complete picture."  And there will not be a "complete picture" until we all collectively agree to engage in rational scientific debate, and I'm not sure how long it will take to get there again.

My personal bottom line:  I simply can not understand what I consider to be the irrational fear of SARS-Cov-2 and I never will.  I can't grasp other's fears regarding coming down with Covid.
Beginning in 2020, I never was worried, never fearful, constantly observing and analysing data month-to-month, (now year-to-year) to stay informed and with those observations, determined that for me, I wasn't masking, social distancing, or taking novel mRNA Covid shots unless threatened with deportation.  If threaten with deportation I'd have opted for the Chinese shots based long-term tested, proven inactivated-virus vaccination technology.  It never came to that.  Got Covid 5 months ago and it was a mild flu.  I'm fine with natural immunity.  Considering literally everyone I know, vaccinated or unvaccinated, eventually came down with a case of Covid (and nobody died or was even seriously sick) - I see no logical reason to take any Covid shot.  Why should I?  I haven't taken any shots other than a international vaccination series prior to moving to Thailand , and I haven't have a flu vaccination for 20 years, and I haven't had the flu in 20 years.

I feel sorry for fearful people.  It's sad and I sincerely wish that all of these people can find courage again.
So if you are fearful, please:  wear masks, social distance, and take all the shots and boosters that are released, and may you all find your collective way through....  Eventually everyone will get sick (from something) and then die.  Spending a life gnawing and worrying about getting sick from one of many pathogen that may be fatal isn't "living." 

I pray - May all you consumed with worry and fear find peace.  That's from my heart.

So, this is enough.  I'm backing out of Covid discussions unless Covid shots eventually become mandated in the future.  I'll deal with it if it happens.  Best of luck.  Do what you need to do to feel safe. 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The WHO is just out with their latest status report on COVID globally. And while they do report data on total cases and deaths for their past month period, December 11 to January 7, the overall reported global numbers are increasingly meaningless as more and more countries cease regularly reporting key data.

 

However, with this latest monthly update, perhaps in part because of the above, the WHO has begun calling out separate charts on the numbers of countries that are regularly and consistently reporting 1) new COVID hospitalizations (22 countries) and 2) new COVID ICU admissions (18), to give a sense of those comparable trends.

 

Thailand is not on either list, because Thailand has never regularly reported new COVID ICU admissions, and although Thailand does report new COVID hospitalization numbers each week, for some reason, those end up being reported in the WHO's reports as new "cases" instead of new hospitalizations.

 

From the report:

 

"The highest numbers of new cases were reported from India (15 079 new cases; 1.1 new cases per 100 000; +843%), Indonesia (8610 new cases; 3.1 new cases per 100 000; +399%), and Thailand (2327 new cases; 3.3 new cases per 100 000; +17%)." [That total roughly equates to a month's worth of Thailand's new COVID hospitalizations reports.]

 

Nonetheless, several neighboring SE Asian countries (along with a few others) that do report such data are showing up on either the new COVID hospitalizations and/or new COVID ICU admissions lists with significant increases for the early December to early January periods vs the month prior period, as I've highlighted in YELLOW on the charts below.

 

New COVID hospitalizations

 

"Among the 22 countries consistently reporting new hospitalizations, 8 (36%) countries registered an increase of 20% or greater in hospitalizations during the past 28 days compared to the previous 28-day period: Indonesia (1337 vs 149; +797%), Malta (79 vs 21; +276%), Brunei Darussalam (588 vs 161; +265%), Malaysia (9312 vs 4137; +125%), Greece (6366 vs 3792; +68%), Singapore (2619 vs 1719; +52%), United Sates of America (128 073 vs 84 981; +51%), and Ireland (1353 vs 967; +40%)."

 

 

 

New COVID ICU admissions

 

"Among the 18 countries consistently reporting new ICU admissions, eight (44%) countries showed an increase of 20% or greater in new ICU admissions during the past 28 days compared to the previous 28-day period: Indonesia (164 vs 18; +811%), Malaysia (135 vs 15; +800%), Singapore (77 vs 38; +103%), Estonia (18 vs 10; +80%), Ireland (20 vs 13; +54%), Netherlands (120 vs 86; +40%), Greece (120 vs 88; +36%), and Czechia (182 vs 146; +25%)"

 

 

https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/covid-19-epidemiological-update---19-january-2024

 

Edited January 23 by TallGuyJohninBKK