Friday December 4, 2020
A recent study by the New Jersey Hospital Association provides important data on both the hospitalization rate for different age groups and the death rate for each group. Back in April the overwhelming majority of people hospitalized belonged to the 64+ age group and about 35% of those ill in that group died.
From April to August the percentage of those in the 64+ age group dying dropped to 21.8 percent because hospitals have learned more about treatment of Covid patients. The data also show that over 70% of deaths were from patients with hypertension and kidney disease with diabetes running third with almost 47%.
The other major shift is the rise in number of persons in the 18-29 age group; more have been hospitalized and the percentage of death in this group has risen to about 13%. Chronic health conditions complicate recovery. As a nation we have a moral responsibility to provide adequate health care to the underserved who are primarily poor, Black, and Latino, who are ill and dying at greater rates because they never had good health care due to poverty and immigration status.
Prayer for the Day
Too long we have turned aside, O Lord, from the poor;
Too long we have ignored the demands you place on us,
Too long we have been blind to those living in our communities
Too long we have thought food baskets were sufficient.
Awaken us, O God, not just to the reality around us
But empower us to live the moral imperative you demand.
In the name of the One who calls us to see and to act,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Of all of the forms of inequality, disparity in health care is the most shocking and inhuman.
- Martin Luther King (1929-1968)
When I learned I had diabetes, my white doctor said to me, “And you have to stop eating pig’s feet.” Why would he think I eat pig’s feet?
- A black woman patient
Have mercy upon me, O Lord, according to your steadfast love;
According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
- Psalm 51 1-2