Last Year in Collapse: Disease, 2023
Antimicrobial Resistance, PFAS, and another year with COVID…
Last Year in Collapse: Disease, 2023
This is a special (free) edition of Last Week in Collapse, normally a post compiling some of the most important, timely, useful, soul-crushing, ironic, stunning, or otherwise must-see/can’t-look-away moments in Collapse.
This is a retrospective on disease, plagues, and other illnesses from the year 2023.
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On December 31, 2023, COVID-19 officially turns 4 years old, though it emerged several months prior. Yet the US ended the COVID emergency in May, and the WHO ended the “global health emergency” for COVID in June. The JN.1 variant is ascendent. The official total worldwide deaths for COVID is just under 7M; unofficially, that figure may be 3x higher. Even mild cases can cause vascular problems for survivors…and diabetes. The Hajj lifted all COVID restrictions this year.
You can click here if you want to see the New York Times live COVID case map for the U.S. Do you know what percent of Americans got at least one COVID vaccine? 69% That’s less than the world average. The most vaccinated state? Rhode Island. The least vaccinated state? Wyoming & Alabama Worldometers has some different, probably equally untrustworthy, data.
It was a banner year for Long COVID, too—even if many people discount the debilitating side-effects of the coronavirus. Every infection increases the risk of Long COVID, and treatments are slowly catching up to meet the challenge. Breathing difficulties, brain fog, heart problems, insomnia, headaches, tiredness, joint pain, and depression are only some symptoms. Accounts of Long COVID are frightening; mask up! It was estimated, in January 2023, that 80% of Chinese people already got COVID, and 75% of Canadians. Something like 8% of Americans are suffering from Long COVID, and 36M Europeans—but another study claims one third of COVID survivors get Long COVID. Supposedly Meta’s app Threads blocked “COVID” searches.
Tuberculosis was responsible for the second-most worldwide deaths from infectious illnesses in 2023, behind only COVID. Data for TB this year is incomplete, but in 2022 it killed 1.3M+ people, infecting another 9M+ more. Air pollution is weakening our lungs, and killing others.
HIV / AIDS is estimated to have killed 600,000+ people worldwide this year, according to estimates from the WHO. Syphilis is also rising at alarming rates in the United States.
More cholera outbreaks, and higher infections, in 2023. Seven brutally impoverished countries saw more than 10,000 cholera cases—it lives in the soil and water and has become endemic. In many places, it is the worst cholera time in years. Cholera spread particularly inside refugee camps in East Africa. In Afghanistan, meth addiction is booming. A growing number of American truck drivers tests positive for marijuana and/or amphetamines too…
Another illness has become endemic in the United States: leishmaniasis. In Equatorial Guinea, Marburg virus struck. In the Red Sea, a mysterious parasite killed off huge numbers of sea urchins.
Avian flu is now devastating Antarctica’s few species. It has already traveled to 80+ countries, killing millions of birds, and scaring farmers into culling many millions more. Over 70M farmed birds in the U.S. were killed over fears of H5N1 contamination this year. It has affected more than avians; mammals (especially sea lions) have been slain, and even a few humans were killed. Japan culled so many birds this year that it ran out of space to bury them.
Over 5,000 deaths from dengue fever this year have panicked the WHO, and forced experts to consider its emergence in the U.S. and Europe. Reportedly over 60,000 infections of dengue hit Argentina.
Depression rates in the U.S.hit record numbers this year. U.S. suicides reached new highs in 2022; they’re still waiting on data before proclaiming 2023 conclusions. Many people are also becoming hikikomori, social hermits isolating themselves from the stresses of public life. The WHO even declared loneliness to be a global health concern. The Overmedicated States of America also saw a drug shortage, forcing some to ration.
Lassa fever, endemic to West Africa, killed ~200 in Nigeria this year. Monkeypox—rebranded as “mpox” in 2022—is still going around in about two dozen countries, where it infected 900+ cases in November. Nevertheless, the WHO declared an end to the health emergency earlier this year. The WHO also released a Health Statistics Report illustrating many other causes of concern.
Bedbugs became more common in Europe, particularly France. Fortunately they do not yet cause death. MERS, a deadly coronavirus from camels, had a weak 2023, although it continues to circulate in and around Saudi Arabia. This virus has not become human-to-human transmitted yet. Ebola too had a weak year—yet the threat still simmers in the jungles of West Africa… Swine flu also had a low year, although it recently resurfaced in the UK… The Zika virus likewise had a below-average year, but reemerged in Bangkok... And “white lung syndrome” emerged in Ohio.
RSV and the flu are now rising in the U.S., alongside COVID. The trio of respiratory illnesses have increased hospitalizations.RSV accounts for about 14,000 deaths in America per year among the elderly;data for younger people are lacking. Humans of all sorts are being diagnosed more widely with chronic fatigue syndrome.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) includes superbugs and other extra-durable bacteria and pathogens—and it’s getting worse. The misuse of antibiotics drives pathogens to adapt their genetics to become immune to conventional ways of dealing with viruses and other illnesses. AMR was responsible for over a million deaths in 2019, and probably more in 2023. Poorer nations tend to suffer more from AMR—but bacteria know no borders. AMR is reportedly soaring in Ukraine amid the carnage of War. Oh, and supposedly these bacteria can travel in rain clouds too. Resistant shigella bacteria were declared to be a serious threat to public health in the U.S.
Polio was 99% eradicated by the vaccine developed in the 1950s. Yet the last 1% is proving nigh-impossible to eliminate. In Ukraine, a few parts of Africa, and beyond, polio rates were slowly rising. Measles in Europe is spiking for some reason… And New Zealand is grappling with E. Coli in its waterways…
2023 was the Year of PFAS. It was found everywhere, from our toilet paper to our blood to wells and even in clouds. Another classic cover-up by industrialists. Plastic pollution is growing; only 9% of plastics are recycled.
Famine, aggravated by drought, War, and other factors, is worsening across much of the drying world. Tens of millions in Afghanistan face serious hunger, the entire 2M population of Gaza is now starving, and Haiti, Burkina Faso, Mali…..also going hungry. Even while obesity soars, people starve. Rumors of upcoming famines in China or in the United States fuel fears—and action. South Sudan, and especially Sudan, are experiencing truly brutal famine conditions. The UN’s report on food security does not paint a hopeful picture.
A new malaria vaccine was prequalified by the WHO; millions of doses will be administered in Africa next year. Meanwhile, nanoplastics are making Parkinson’s and dementia more common—and there may be nothing that can help us there. Meanwhile, American CDC officials worry about the accelerating spread of Candida Auris.
Fentanyl and other overdoses rose, at least in the U.S., again in 2023. It’s supposedly gotten bad enough that Narcan is going into schools to prevent overdoses among middle schoolers… Only one symptom of the utter Collapse that has come to educational institutions across many countries.
Tick-borne diseases grew in North America, like Lyme Disease and Babesiosis. And don’t get me started on tiger mosquitoes spreading across Europe…and Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever is being quietly ushered across Europe by climate change. Flies in Sudan spread disease and spoiled food.
Various cardiovascular illnesses still claimed the top spot for disease killers this year. Many heart diseases are linked with obesity, which is still rising. More than 40% of Americans are obese! The Red Cross admitted that our species is completely unprepared for the next pandemic—and we haven’t even finished our last one. The next epidemic could be this fungal skin infection from India…or some thawing bacteria or virus trapped in permafrost…
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