Photo: Martin Sanchez
The COVID-19 pandemic has now joined the ranks of Ebola and HIV as one of humanity’s most lethal infectious diseases. The number worldwide to date is 6 million, with experts stressing that it will be far from over even at this point after three years since the entry into human populations.
The date, recorded by Johns Hopkins University, is the most recent appalling prompt of the relentless nature of the pandemic, even with people dropping masks, traveling again, and reopening businesses around the world.
The remote islands of the Pacific are currently struggling with their first-ever outbreaks and deaths, spurred by a highly contagious omicron variant.
Hong Kong is testing its 7.5 million population three times this month as it abides by mainland China’s “zero-COVID” master plan.
Poland, Hungary, and Romania are all suffering from high death rates, along with over a million refugees coming in from currently assaulted Ukraine, a nation with deficient vaccination coverage and high tolls of cases and deaths.
The U.S., with its abundance of wealth and vaccine accessibility, has reported 1 million deaths on its own.
According to visiting professor at the National University of Singapore’s medical school and co-Chair of the Asia Pacific Immunization Coalition, Tikki Pang, global death tolls are mainly fueled among people who have not received vaccination shots against the coronavirus.
“This is a disease of the unvaccinated—look what is happening in Hong Kong right now, the health system is being overwhelmed,” he said. “The large majority of the deaths and the severe cases are in the unvaccinated, vulnerable segment of the population.”
The first million people died within seven months following its outset in early 2020 and a million four months later, while another several million witnessed their deaths at an accelerated rate, one every three days until they numbered 5 million by October’s end.
It has attained a 6-million mark and continues to take lives each day.
Opinions expressed by NY Weekly contributors are their own.
