(CNN) – The United States has now passed the devastating milestone of half a million deaths from Covid-19. It’s a shocking figure that, according to the experts, shouldn’t have been that high.
“I think if you look back historically, we have fared worse than most other countries and we are a rich and highly developed country,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci Monday to George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America”.
It’s so hard to go back and try to do a metaphorical autopsy about how things were. It was just bad, ” added Fauci.
The death toll from Covid-19 in the US is by far the highest of any country, and more than double that of Brazil, which has the second highest number of deaths related to the virus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The US has also reported the most infections and now more than 28 million Americans have tested positive for COVID-19. That number is more than double the number of cases in India, second in line, according to data from Johns Hopkins, and nearly three times that of Brazil.
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Experts have pointed to several factors that may have contributed to the pandemic’s exacerbation, including a lack of clear messages from the country’s leaders, state and local leaders loosening restrictions too soon, major celebrations and continued opposition to face masks. And other security measures.
“A mask is nothing more than a life-saving medical device and yet it has been categorized in many other ways that were not factual, scientific and downright dangerous,” says Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health. Cheers to “Axios on HBO” earlier this week.
“I think it could be argued that tens of thousands of people died as a result,” added Collins.
What the United States should do now
Emergency doctor Dr. Leana Wen said the milestone was a reminder of “all the lives we could have saved.” And now he says he is concerned about what could happen.
“My biggest fear right now is complacency,” Wen told CNN Monday.
While states across the country can report encouraging trends, experts including Wen have warned that now is not the time to relapse, especially with variants of the coronavirus in circulation.
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“The best way for us to get back to normal is to redouble our efforts now, not take off our masks, eat indoors, do other things that we know could risk recurring flare-ups. flaring up, ”said Dr. Craig Spencer. director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian / Columbia University Medical Center.
“Most people in this country, despite previous infections and two months of vaccinations, still lack protection from covid and could become infected,” he told CNN. “This is not over and we have to redouble our efforts.”
That means continuing to wear a mask, taking social distance, avoiding crowded areas, washing your hands regularly, and applying the safety precautions that have worked so far to slow the spread of infection.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Rochelle Walensky, during a briefing on Covid-19 on Monday, said that while the numbers are heading in the right direction, “the cases, hospitalizations and deaths remain at very high levels. ‘
New cases have been steadily declining for five weeks, Walensky said. But the US continues to add tens of thousands of new infections every day. More than two million new cases of covid-19 were registered in February alone.
Hospital admissions have fallen sharply since the January 6 peak of more than 132,400 covid-19 patients. But more than 55,400 people remain in the hospital with the virus, according to the hospital COVID tracking project.
And COVID-19 claims hundreds of lives every day. According to data from Johns Hopkins, more than 1,300 deaths were reported Monday, and more than 52,000 were reported this month.
“While the pandemic is moving in the right direction, there is still a lot of work to be done,” Walensky said.
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Study: smell and taste may not return after covid-19 for months
And for many people who survived the onset of the disease, the symptoms persist.
Canadian researchers even reported on Monday that people’s sense of smell and taste do not return until five months after being infected with the coronavirus.
A team from the University of Quebec questioned more than 800 health professionals who tested positive for the virus. They rated their sense of smell and taste on a scale from zero to 10 and some were asked to take a home test to further assess these senses.
During the initial infection, more than 70% of those who took the survey reported losing their sense of smell and 65% reported losing their taste, the researchers said in preliminary results.
Five months later, when using a home test, 17% of the participants said they still had odor loss and 9% of people said they had a persistent loss of taste.
“Our results show that a decreased sense of smell and taste may persist in several people with COVID-19,” said Dr. Johannes Frasnelli of the University of Quebec, who worked on the study, in a statement.
“This highlights the importance of keeping track of people infected and needs more research to discover the magnitude of neurological problems associated with COVID-19.”
CDC announces meeting of emergency vaccine advisers
Meanwhile, as the United States rushes to get more vaccines, another vaccine could soon be given the green light for the U.S. market.
Johnson & Johnson announced earlier this month that it had filed for emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its single-dose covid-19 vaccine.
Friday, an FDA advisory group will discuss the filing and company details. Based on the counsel’s guidance, the FDA may choose to give the vaccine the green light. The CDC advisers will then discuss their own vaccine launch recommendations, which must then be formally accepted by the CDC.
The CDC announced an emergency meeting of its vaccine advisers from February 28 to March 1.
Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson will testify Tuesday that it could deliver enough doses to vaccinate more than 20 million Americans by the end of March, increasing the country’s existing supply.
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So far, more than 44 million Americans have received at least their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, data from the CDC shows.
About 19.4 million people have received both doses, the data shows. That’s less than 6% of the US population.
CNN’s Christopher Ríos, Jen Christensen and Michael Nedelman contributed to this report.