Question

How many of the top 10 leading causes of death (all-cause) do you think are preventable? Explain your answer.

What are 3 theories, according to Case and Deaton, of why Deaths of Despair are on the rise among mid-life Americans?

What is herd immunity and how do vaccinations provide herd immunity to a population. How does herd immunity play a role in seasonal influenza spread versus the novel COVID-19 virus?

Answer 1

1)Here some of the preventable cause of leading deaths in the world,
Hypertension
Smoking
tobacco
Malnutrition
Sexually transmitteddiseases
Poor diet
Overweight and obesity
Physical inactivity
Alcohol
lndoor air pollution from solid fuels
Unsafe water and poor sanitation

We can take some actions to prevent this cause lead to death as a percentage of population couldn't survive without prevention.
As we see , we can quit smoking, alcohol, wear mask to be safe from pollution and now covid-19, sanitize food and water, take a healthy diet, etc. But we don't care about it but lastly it causes death.
2) theories are like

i) there was another epidemic running rampant in the United States, killing more Americans in 2018 than the coronavirus has killed so far. What they call “deaths of despair” – deaths by suicide, alcohol-related liver disease, and drug overdose – have risen rapidly since the mid-1990s, increasing from about 65,000 per year in 1995 to 158,000 in 2018.

ii) The increase in deaths from this other epidemic is almost entirely confined to Americans without a four-year college degree. While overall mortality rates have fallen for those with a four-year degree, they have risen for less-educated Americans. Life expectancy at birth for all Americans fell between 2014 and 2017. That was the first three-year drop in life expectancy since the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19; with two epidemics now raging at once, life expectancy is set to fall again.

iii) Behind these mortality figures are equally gloomy economic data. As in book, real (inflation-adjusted) wages for US men without a college degree have fallen for 50 years. At the same time, college graduates’ earnings premium over those without a degree has risen to an astonishing 80%. With less-educated Americans becoming increasingly less likely to have jobs, the share of prime-age men in the labor force has trended downward for decades, as has the labor-force participation rate for women since 2000.
3) Herd immunity occurs when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. As a result, the whole community becomes protected — not just those who are immune.

A vaccine for the virus that causes COVID-19 would be an ideal approach to achieving herd immunity. Vaccines create immunity without causing illness or resulting complications. Herd immunity makes it possible to protect the population from a disease, including those who can't be vaccinated, such as newborns or those who have compromised immune systems. Using the concept of herd immunity, vaccines have successfully controlled deadly contagious diseases such as smallpox, polio, diphtheria, rubella and many others.

Reaching herd immunity through vaccination sometimes has drawbacks, though. Protection from some vaccines can wane over time, requiring revaccination. Sometimes people don't get all of the shots that they need to be completely protected from a disease.