Tag: COVID

Has COVID Affected Pensions for Workers without Social Security?

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://crr.bc.edu/briefs/has-covid-affected-pensions-for-workers-without-social-security/

PDF: https://crr.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/SLP81.pdf

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At the outset of the pandemic recession, many feared it would undermine workers’ employer-sponsored retirement plans.

State and local employees who are not covered by Social Security would have been particularly vulnerable, as they lack the buffer this program offers.

Their employer defined benefit plans would have been hurt by a long recession with poor investment returns and reduced contributions due to tax shortfalls.

Instead, these plans exceeded their return targets; tax revenues held up; and government sponsors got stimulus aid, so plan funded ratios actually improved.

And long-term structural headwinds such as negative cash flows and aggressive return targets still pose little risk to their ability to pay future benefits.

Author(s):Jean-Pierre Aubry and Kevin Wandrei

Publication Date: January 2022

Publication Site: Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Working Paper

If you’re vaxxed, you’re more likely to be killed by lightning than die of COVID: study

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://nypost.com/2022/02/08/lightnings-more-likely-good-odds-for-vaxxed/

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Those odds can be gauged from a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They tracked more than 1 million vaccinated adults in America over most of last year, including the period when the Delta variant was surging, and classified victims of COVID according to risk factors such as being over 65, being immunosuppressed or suffering from diabetes or chronic diseases of the heart, kidney, lungs, liver or brain.

The researchers report that none of the healthy people under 65 had a severe case of COVID that required treatment in an intensive-care unit.

 Not a single one of these nearly 700,000 people died, and the risk was minuscule for most older people, too. Among vaccinated people over 65 without an underlying medical condition, only one person died.

In all, there were 36 deaths, mostly among a small minority of older people with a multitude of comorbidities: the 3% of the sample that had at least four risk factors.

Author(s): John Tierney

Publication Date: 8 Feb 2022

Publication Site: NY Post

Public Pension Systems Pared Costs and Assumptions in 2021, NCPERS Study Finds

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220202005695/en/Public-Pension-Systems-Pared-Costs-and-Assumptions-in-2021-NCPERS-Study-Finds

Excerpt:

Pension systems said earnings on investments accounted for 68% of overall pension revenues in their most recent fiscal year. Employer contributions made up 23% of revenues, and employee contributions totaled 8%.

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated efforts by public pension systems to expand their communications capabilities. In all, 78% offered live web conferences to members during 2021, up from 54% a year earlier.

Pension funds that participated in the survey in 2020 and 2021 reported that their funded levels rose to 72.3%, from 71.7%. Overall, pension funds reported a funded level of 74.7% for 2021. While funded levels are not as important to pensions’ sustainability as steady contributions are, the trend is positive.

The inflation assumption for the funds’ most recent fiscal year remained steady at 2.7%. These assumptions were in place in the midst of an acceleration in the rate of inflation, which reached 7% at the end of 2021, from 1.4% a year earlier, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Author(s): NCPERS

Publication Date: 2 Feb 2022

Publication Site: Businesswire

Supplements: COVID-19; Racial and Ethnic Disparities: Chapter 13

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://adr.usrds.org/2021/supplements-covid-19-disparities/13-covid-19-supplement

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Among beneficiaries with CKD, mortality during COVID-19 hospitalization was approximately 40% during the first wave of the pandemic but decreased thereafter, reaching an average of 18% from July to December (Figure 13.10).

During all of 2020, the incidence of in-hospital death during COVID-19 hospitalizations was 21.5% among older Medicare beneficiaries with CKD, 18.8% among beneficiaries undergoing dialysis, and 19.3% among beneficiaries with a kidney transplant.

Between epidemiologic week 13 of 2020 and epidemiologic week 8 of 2021, the number of prevalent dialysis patients fell from 567,303 to 555,264, an unprecedented decline of over 2% (Figure 13.11).

Among patients undergoing dialysis, mortality was consistently elevated, relative to recent historical norms, between epidemiologic week 12 of 2020 and week 10 of 2021. Among patients with a kidney transplant, excess mortality was persistent through the second quarter of 2021 (Figure 13.12a).

The cumulative number of deaths among dialysis patients in 2020 was 18% higher than in 2019, while the cumulative number of deaths among transplant patients in 2020 was 41% higher than in 2019 (Figure 13.12b).

Publication Date: accessed 9 Feb 2022

Publication Site: U.S. Renal Data System

COVID-19 and its Impact on Kidney Patients Utilizing U.S. Dialysis Centers

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.kidney.org/news/covid-19-and-its-impact-kidney-patients-utilizing-u-s-dialysis-centers

Excerpt:

The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) stress the precarious position people with kidney failure, who are immunocompromised, face as the recent Omicron wave continues to spread among patients and staff at dialysis facilities. Cases of COVID-19 are causing serious illness, forcing shortened treatment times for patients, and exacerbating shortages in staff and supplies that impede access to this life-sustaining treatment. COVID-19’s impact on people with kidney diseases has resulted in the first decline in the number of patients on dialysis in the United States in the 50-year history of the Medicare ESRD Program.

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There are 783,000 individuals in the United States who have kidney failure, and just under 500,000 of these individuals require life-sustaining dialysis delivered in a dialysis center three times a week, four hours a day. During dialysis treatments, patients typically sit near other patients and staff in facilities that are not always well ventilated. Many of these patients are older, low-income, and from historically disadvantaged communities, and most have underlying conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

Despite concerted efforts by dialysis organizations, nephrologists, and other clinicians to slow its spread, COVID-19 continues to run rampant through dialysis facilities. According to data from the US Renal Data System, 15.8% of all patients on dialysis in the United States had contracted COVID-19 as of the end of 2020. During the winter 2020 wave, weekly deaths due to COVID-19 peaked at nearly 20% and annual mortality during 2020 was 18% higher than in 2019.[1]

Despite these high rates of infection and mortality, dialysis patients were not prioritized for access to immunization when the vaccines became available a year ago even though evidence shows that the immune response to vaccination is blunted in dialysis patients. Furthermore, although antibody levels decline more rapidly in dialysis patients than in the general population[i], dialysis patients were not prioritized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) when third doses of the vaccine were approved in August.[2] In addition, dialysis patients were also excluded from the groups eligible to receive prophylactic long-acting antibody therapy targeting the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Lastly, the National Institutes of Health did not receive funding for COVID-19 research to help people with kidney diseases or failure in any of last year’s relief packages.

[1] https://adr.usrds.org/2021/supplements-covid-19-disparities/13-covid-19-supplement

Publication Date: 18 Jan 2022

Publication Site: National Kidney Foundation

COVID Waves in 2020 Caused Bigger U.S Death Rate Spike Than 1918 Flu: Actuaries

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2022/01/26/covid-waves-in-2020-caused-bigger-u-s-death-rate-spike-than-1918-flu-actuaries/

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The pandemic led to the biggest U.S. death rate increase from causes other than COVID-19 since 1936.

The death rate in the highest-income counties increased to 736.1 deaths per 100,000 people, from 638.4 per 100,000 in 2019

For people ages 5 through 44, increases in the death rate from causes other than COVID-19 were much bigger than the increase caused directly by COVID-19.

Author(s): Allison Bell

Publication Date: 26 Jan 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor

The Relation Between COVID-19 and Depression

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.genre.com/knowledge/publications/cflh21-2-obrien-en.html

Excerpt:

A number of studies have looked at the incidence of Long COVID, including a recently published state-of-the-art review of post-acute sequelae of severe disease.1 This indicates that 33% to 98% of survivors have symptoms or complications for at least a month. The most common of these are fatigue (28.3%‑98%), headache (91.2%), dyspnoea (13.5%‑88%), cough (10%‑13%), chest pain (5%‑42.7%), anxiety or depression (14.6%‑23%) and deficits in smell or taste (13.1%‑67%). The importance of understanding the long-term effects of COVID‑19 is vital in planning future care and management strategies. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the U. S. has recently allocated $470 million to build a national study population including diverse research volunteers and, to support large-scale studies on the long-term effects of COVID‑19. This is known as the NIH Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) study.2

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A recent study of the effects of the pandemic on anxiety and major depression has estimated a significant increase in the prevalence of both major depressive disorder, with an estimated additional 53.2 million cases worldwide, and anxiety disorders with an additional 76.2 million cases. These findings are particularly concerning because depression and anxiety were already leading causes of disability worldwide. By using the global burden of disease study model, the study gives estimates of additional disability-adjusted life-years (DALYS). Major depressive disorder caused 49.4 million DALYs, and anxiety disorders caused 44.5 million DALYS in 2020.9

Whether the increase in depression and anxiety can be solely ascribed to the effects of the pandemic or whether the disease itself can induce these conditions remains uncertain. Soon after the start of the pandemic, a UK‑wide surveillance study trying to identify neurological and neuropsychiatric complications identified patients with altered mental status, which fulfilled the clinical case definition for psychiatric diagnoses:10

21 of the 23 cases were new diagnoses.

10 had new onset psychosis.

6 had a neurocognitive syndrome.

4 had an affective disorder.

Author(s): Dr. John O’Brien, Life/Health Chief Medical Officer, London

Publication Date: Feb 2022

Publication Site: GenRe

The 5 Highest-Population States’ Current COVID-19 Mortality Picture

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2022/02/07/the-5-highest-population-states-current-covid-19-mortality-picture/

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Life insurers had hoped that vaccination campaigns, social distancing efforts and the effects of past COVID-19 infections on people’s immune systems would start to reduce the impact of the pandemic on people with commercial life insurance and other commercial insurance products.

While the fall 2021 surge was underway, information about deaths and life insurance claims emerged slowly. Some life insurers suggested that the fall surge seemed to be spiking hard but ending quickly.

Now, Unum Group, Lincoln Financial, MetLife and other life insurers are saying that the fall surge did cause big increases in the ratio of death benefits to life insurance premiums. At Unum, for example, the ratio increased to 98.3% in the latest quarter, from 71.7% in the fourth quarter of 2019, before the pandemic began.

Author(s): Allison Bell

Publication Date: 7 Feb 2022

Publication Site: Think Advisor

New York pension official, worried about misinformation, seeks Spotify report

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://wtvbam.com/2022/02/07/exclusive-new-york-pension-official-worried-about-misinformation-seeks-spotify-report/

Excerpt:

New York State’s top pension official has asked streaming music platform Spotify Technology SA for details about the effectiveness of its new content rules, citing complaints including that podcaster Joe Rogan has spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who oversees funds that hold Spotify shares, requested the report in a letter sent to Spotify Chief Executive Daniel Ek on Feb. 2, which was shown to Reuters.

The letter also urged Spotify to give users an easy mechanism to report content that could violate its rules, and to define how its board oversees content risks and enforcement.

DiNapoli cited reports of Spotify hosting content that has included COVID-19 misinformation, and racist and antisemitic material. Prominent rock musician Neil Young last month left the platform last month because he said Rogan has misled people about vaccines, followed by other stars.

Author(s): Ross Kerber

Publication Date: 7 Feb 2022

Publication Site: WTVB

Pandemic-fueled shortages of home health aides strand patients without care

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/03/health/home-health-care-aide-shortage-khn-partner-wellness/index.html

Excerpt:

Frail older adults are finding it harder than ever to get paid help amid acute staff shortages at home health agencies.

Several trends are fueling the shortages: Hospitals and other employers are hiring away home health workers with better pay and benefits. Many aides have fallen ill or been exposed to Covid-19 during the recent surge of omicron cases and must quarantine for a time. And staffers are burned out after working during the pandemic in difficult, anxiety-provoking circumstances.

The implications for older adults are dire. Some seniors who are ready for discharge are waiting in hospitals or rehabilitation centers for several days before home care services can be arranged. Some are returning home with less help than would be optimal. Some are experiencing cutbacks in services. And some simply can’t find care.

Author(s):Judith Graham, Kaiser Health News

Publication Date: 3 Feb 2022

Publication Site: CNN

Understanding the Covid Odds

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.city-journal.org/understanding-the-covid-odds

Excerpt:

Those odds can be gauged from a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health, published by the Centers for Disease Control. They tracked more than 1 million vaccinated adults in America over most of last year, including the period when the Delta variant was surging, and classified victims of Covid according to risk factors such as being over 65, being immunosuppressed, or suffering from diabetes or chronic diseases of the heart, kidney, lungs, liver or brain.

The researchers report that none of the healthy people under 65 had a severe case of Covid that required treatment in an intensive-care unit. Not a single one of these nearly 700,000 people died, and the risk was miniscule for most older people, too. Among vaccinated people over 65 without an underlying medical condition, only one person died. In all, there were 36 deaths, mostly among a small minority of older people with a multitude of comorbidities: the 3 percent of the sample that had at least four risk factors. Among everyone else, a group that included elderly people with one or two chronic conditions, there were just eight deaths among more than 1.2 million people, so their risk of dying was about 1 in 150,000.

Those are roughly the same odds that in the course of a year you will die in a fire, or that you’ll perish by falling down stairs. Going anywhere near automobiles is a bigger risk: you’re three times more likely during a given year to be killed while riding in a car, and also three times more likely to be a pedestrian casualty. The 150,000-to-1 odds of a Covid death are even longer than the odds over your lifetime of dying in an earthquake or being killed by lightning.

Author(s): John Tierney

Publication Date: 6 Feb 2022

Publication Site: City Journal

Why Coney Island and Brighton Beach were hit so hard by omicron

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://gothamist.com/news/why-coney-island-and-brighton-beach-were-hit-so-hard-omicron

Excerpt:

The two zip codes encompassing this region — 11224 and 11235 — have experienced 75 deaths per 100,000 people over the last month, a fatality rate nearly three times the citywide average. The pair of zip codes ranked only behind East New York when it came to the pace of COVID deaths between December 24th and January 20th, while their hospitalization rates were also among the highest in the city.

These two zip codes in southern Brooklyn also have lower vaccination coverage than the city as a whole, a common thread between most of the places hit hardest this winter. The area is averaging 66% full vaccination, compared with 75% citywide. In adjacent Gravesend, fewer than two-thirds of residents are fully vaccinated, and meanwhile, some parts of the city are approaching universal coverage.

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Hospital leaders said undervaccination is having an outsized effect on these oceanside communities because the area’s demographics make residents prone to severe illness from COVID-19. In Brighton Beach and Coney Island, 26% of residents are over the age of 65, compared with about 14% in the borough as a whole. Many of those elderly residents also have underlying health conditions.

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Citywide, 89% of New Yorkers between ages 65 to 74 are fully vaccinated, but the rate drops to 63% for people older than 85. Municipal data also show coverage varies by region and by other demographics. For instance, just 62% of white seniors in the Bronx are fully vaccinated, and only 65% of Black seniors in Brooklyn.

Author(s): Caroline Lewis

Publication Date: 7 Feb 2022

Publication Site: Gothamist