https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/covid-falling-49-50-states-deaths-900000-82675635

Propelled in part by the wildly contagious omicron variant, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 hit 900,000 on Friday, less than two months after eclipsing 800,000.

The two-year total, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of Indianapolis, San Francisco, or Charlotte, North Carolina.

The milestone comes more than 13 months into a vaccination drive that has been beset by misinformation and political and legal strife, though the shots have proved safe and highly effective at preventing serious illness and death.

“It is an astronomically high number. If you had told most Americans two years ago as this pandemic was getting going that 900,000 Americans would die over the next few years, I think most people would not have believed it,” said Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

He lamented that most of the deaths happened after the vaccine gained authorization.

“We got the medical science right. We failed on the social science. We failed on how to help people get vaccinated, to combat disinformation, to not politicize this,” Jha said. “Those are the places where we have failed as America.”

Just 64% of the population is fully vaccinated, or about 212 million Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nor is COVID-19 finished with the United States: Jha said the U.S. could reach 1 million deaths by April.

Among the dead is Susan Glister-Berg, 53, of Sterling Heights, Michigan, whose children had to take her off a ventilator just before Thanksgiving after COVID-19 ravaged her lungs and kidneys.

“She’s always cared more about people than she did herself. She always took care of everyone,” said a daughter, Hali Fortuna. “That’s how we all describe her: She cared for everyone. Very selfless.”

Glister-Berg, a smoker, was in poor health, and was apparently unvaccinated, according to her daughter. Fortuna just got the booster herself.

“We all want it to go away. I personally don’t see it going away anytime soon,” she said. “I guess it’s about learning to live with it and hoping we all learn to take care of each other better.”

The latest bleak milestone came as omicron is loosening its grip on the country.

New cases per day have plunged by almost a half-million since mid-January, when they hit a record-shattering peak of more than 800,000. Cases have been declining in 49 states in the last two weeks, by Johns Hopkins’ count, and the 50th, Maine, reported that confirmed infections are falling there, too, dropping sharply over the past week.

Also, the number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 has declined 15% since mid-January to about 124,000.

Deaths are still running high at more than 2,400 per day on average, the most since last winter. And they are on the rise in at least 35 states, reflecting the lag between when victims become infected and when they succumb.

Still, public health officials have expressed hope that the worst of omicron is coming to an end. While they caution that things could still go bad again and dangerous new variants could emerge, some places are already talking about easing precautions.

Los Angeles County may end outdoor mask requirements in a few weeks, Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said Thursday.

“Post-surge does not imply that the pandemic is over or that transmission is low, or that there will not be unpredictable waves of surges in the future,” she warned.

Despite its wealth and its world-class medical institutions, the U.S. has the highest reported toll of any country, and even then, the real number of lives lost directly or indirectly to the coronavirus is thought to be significantly higher.

Experts believe some COVID-19 deaths have been misattributed to other conditions. And some Americans are thought to have died of chronic illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes because they were unable or unwilling to obtain treatment during the crisis.

The Rev. Gina Anderson-Cloud, senior pastor of Fredericksburg United Methodist Church in Virginia, lost her dementia-stricken father after he was hospitalized for cancer surgery and then isolated in a COVID-19 ward. He went into cardiac arrest, was revived, but died about a week later.

She had planned to be by his bedside, but the rules barred her from going to the hospital.

“I think it’s important for us not to be numbed. Each one of those numbers is someone,” she said of the death toll. “Those are mothers, fathers, children, our elders.”

When the vaccine was rolled out in mid-December 2020, the death toll stood at about 300,000. It hit 600,000 in mid-June 2021 and 700,000 on Oct. 1. On Dec. 14, it reached 800,000.

It took just 51 more days to get to 900,000, the fastest 100,000 jump since last winter.

“We have underestimated our enemy here, and we have under-prepared to protect ourselves,” said Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, a public health professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “We’ve learned a tremendous amount of humility in the face of a lethal and contagious respiratory virus.”

The latest 100,000 deaths encompass those caused by both the delta variant and omicron, which began spreading rapidly in December and became the predominant version in the U.S. before the month was out.

While omicron has proved less likely to cause severe illness than delta, the sheer number of people who became infected with it contributed to the high number of deaths.

Ja said he and other medical professionals are frustrated that policymakers are seemingly running out of ideas for getting people to roll up their sleeves.

“There aren’t a whole lot of tools left. We need to double down and come up with new ones,” he said.

COVID-19 has become one of the top three causes of death in America, behind the big two — heart disease and cancer.

“We have been fighting among ourselves about tools that actually do save lives. Just the sheer amount of politics and misinformation around vaccines, which are remarkably effective and safe, is staggering,” Sharfstein said.

He added: “This is the consequence.”

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article257972023.html

Protesters in Charlotte joined demonstrations nationwide Saturday rallying against restrictive anti-abortion laws in Texas and advocating for reproductive rights. The group gathered in First Ward Park for the uptown Charlotte rally and march. HANNAH LANG HLANG@CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM

North Carolina isn’t exactly considered a champion of reproductive rights.

So it may come as a surprise that North Carolinians can now get hormonal birth control without a doctor’s prescription, thanks to a law initially passed last year by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

The law, which went into effect Tuesday, allows pharmacists to dispense birth control pills and patches without the signature of a patient’s physician, removing a significant, unnecessary barrier that prevents many people from obtaining hormonal contraception.

It almost sounds too good to be true — and it very well may be.

The law is clear that people will now be able to obtain birth control without a prescription, but it’s less clear whether their insurance will still have to pay for it.

Under the Affordable Care Act, most insurance plans are required to cover FDA-approved contraceptives with no out-of-pocket costs when prescribed by a health care provider. That provision significantly reduced the cost of birth control for many, but faced strong objections from conservatives. The Trump administration later undermined that mandate by allowing for broad religious and moral exemptions, which the U.S. Supreme Court eventually upheld in a 2020 ruling.

But the requirement doesn’t seem to apply to contraceptives dispensed without a prescription — meaning that those who would benefit from getting birth control without the added trouble of a doctor’s visit might still be shackled with the burden of paying for it. Without insurance, the birth control pill can cost as much as $600 a year, an expense that is unmanageable for many people.

Since the law only went into effect this week, the state health director hasn’t yet provided specific guidance — otherwise known as “standing orders” — that instructs pharmacists how to carry it out. That guidance should come quickly in order to clarify whether or not birth control dispensed without a prescription will result in co-pays or other out-of-pocket costs.

In other states where birth control is available without a prescription, such as California, the law was written to specifically mandate coverage for both prescribed and non-prescribed contraceptives. But North Carolina’s law doesn’t include such a provision.

It’s not for lack of trying. Rep. Julie von Haefen, a Wake County Democrat, introduced a bill that would have specifically addressed the affordability aspect. In addition to empowering pharmacists to dispense birth control without a prescription, House Bill 817 would have required insurers to cover both prescription and nonprescription contraceptives. Unfortunately, the bill did not gain any traction in the Republican-controlled legislature.

“I’m not sure if the bill drafters of the other bill that ended up passing really thought through whether that would affect the health care coverages, because it’s not technically a written prescription from a doctor,” von Haefen said. “The reason I did my bill was mostly to eliminate the co-pays for any kind of hormonal contraceptives.”

But Jillian Riley, the North Carolina director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said that birth control dispensed by a pharmacist could still be covered by insurance due to a different state statute that requires reimbursement when services normally covered by a person’s insurance policy are performed by a different licensed health care provider.

Surprisingly enough, making hormonal birth control more accessible is something that has enjoyed a fair amount of Republican support over the years, particularly at the national level.

It was a big talking point for U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis when he first ran for office in 2014, as well as for a handful of other Republicans running in battleground states. It’s even an issue that U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz famously — and strangely — agreed on back in 2019.

What Democrats and Republicans don’t agree upon, however, is who should pay for it. While the GOP appears to support measures that make birth control more available, the party has been less enthusiastic about making sure everyone can afford it.

That’s a problem, because affordability and accessibility go hand in hand. If the state health director decides that the law, as written, does not require insurance companies to cover the cost of birth control without a prescription, lawmakers should quickly craft stronger legislation that ensures contraception is both affordable and accessible for all North Carolinians.