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Four years of COVID: Fewer people are dying but the virus ‘is still with us’ – The Boston Globe

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Four years of COVID: Fewer people are dying but the virus ‘is still with us’ – The Boston Globe


Yet while infections have subsided in Massachusetts and nationwide, the ever-evolving pandemic has entered a state of uneasy calm. People are still dying at higher rates than historic norms, and significantly fewer people — including the elderly and the immunocompromised — are getting booster shots to protect themselves. Meanwhile, many hospitals and nursing homes remain stretched to capacity, leaving them ill-prepared for any new outbreaks, infectious disease experts say.

“We know a lot more than we did four years ago, but we’ve still missed a lot of opportunities along the way,” said Dr. Jonathan Levy, who chairs the department of environmental health at Boston University’s School of Public Health. “We have not seen longer-term, structural changes that would keep people healthier — and that’s troubling given that people are still dying.”

Through March 2, the virus has claimed 23,526 lives in Massachusetts, including 304 since the start of this year. Tens of thousands more have been seriously sickened by the virus, and periodic waves of infections continue to hit the region.

Last spring, the WHO officially lifted its March 11, 2020, emergency declaration, while warning that it did not signal an end to the pandemic and urged countries not to dismantle their COVID response systems. The United States and Massachusetts also ended their emergency declarations.

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Yet even as positive signs emerge, the threat is far from over.

One key benchmark is excess deaths, which looks at the number of people who die over and above expected levels based on historic patterns. In the first COVID wave, from March to May 2020, the number of Massachusetts residents dying was double the normal rate, a shocking increase. It spiked again, though not as sharply, in the winter of 2020-21 and from the fall of 2021 to February 2022, according to a recent analysis of mortality data.

While excess deaths have plunged, they still remain at stubbornly elevated levels statewide. Since mid-2022, they have hovered between 5 and 14 percent — a sign that COVID continues to kill those who are most vulnerable, including those with chronic health conditions like high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease, said Benjy Renton, a research associate at Brown University School of Public Health, who helped analyze the data in collaboration with Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency medicine physician and public health expert at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

“It looks pretty obvious to me that we have chronic excess mortality, which means that the threat is not gone,” Faust said. “It’s still with us.”

Renton fears the trend of elevated excess deaths could reflect a “new normal.”

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“That’s still an uncomfortable level of mortality, and the vast majority of those deaths are preventable given what we now know about the virus and the tools we have,” Renton said. “It’s a measure of the acute and lasting impact that COVID continues to have.”

Even so, interest in the pandemic continues to wane, frustrating public health experts. Some states have taken their public dashboards for tracking the virus offline and have stopped following key measures such as reinfections and hospitalizations. More than 80 percent of the US population has received at least one dose of the vaccines, but the most recent COVID booster only made it into the arms of about 20 percent of Americans, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show.

Levy at Boston University is concerned that apathy set in too early, before people changed their behavior and vital changes could be made to health care systems. Early calls for expanding hospital bed capacity, addressing the health care workforce shortage, and expanding insurance coverage for disadvantaged communities have faded as the sense of crisis has ebbed, he noted. COVID laid bare the risks of many jobs, yet most employers did not change their sick leave policies, he added.

“Early on, there was a feeling that we were all in this together and so let’s support each other,” Levy said. “Now each person is very much on their own to navigate their space … and those who have more resources can navigate it more easily than those that do not.”


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Chris Serres can be reached at chris.serres@globe.com. Follow him @ChrisSerres.





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Massachusetts orders DraftKings to pay $934K after it botched MLB parlay bets

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Massachusetts orders DraftKings to pay 4K after it botched MLB parlay bets


A costly sportsbook screwup left DraftKings on the hook for nearly $1 million after Massachusetts regulators ordered the payouts tied to a botched MLB parlay scheme.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission voted 5-0 on Thursday to reject DraftKings’ bid to void $934,137 in payouts stemming from a series of correlated parlays placed during MLB’s 2025 American League Championship Series, according to Bookies.com.

A Massachusetts customer wagered $12,950 total across 27 multi-leg parlays on Toronto Blue Jays player Nathan Lukes, exploiting an internal DraftKings configuration error that allowed the bettor to stack multiple versions of the same bet into one wager.

DraftKings sought to void a payout of nearly $1 million to a bettor who placed 27 multi-leg parlay wagers that were successful. Tada Images – stock.adobe.com

DraftKings told regulators the bets should never have been accepted and argued the patron acted unethically by taking advantage of an obvious error.

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Commissioners flatly rejected that argument.

The wagers were tied to DraftKings’ “Player to Record X+ Hits in Series” market during the seven-game ALCS between Toronto and Seattle.

Because of a misclassification inside DraftKings’ trading tools, Lukes was incorrectly labeled a “non-participant” rather than an active player.

That designation disabled safeguards designed to block bettors from parlaying correlated outcomes from the same market.

As a result, the bettor was able to combine multiple Lukes hit thresholds — including 5+, 6+, 7+ and 8+ hits — into single parlays, functionally creating an inflated wager on Lukes recording eight or more hits at dramatically enhanced odds.

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A Massachusetts customer wagered $12,950 total across 27 multi-leg parlays on Toronto Blue Jays player Nathan Lukes. AP

The bettor also added unrelated, high-probability legs, including NFL moneyline bets, to further juice payouts.

Lukes ultimately appeared in all seven games and finished the series with nine hits, clearing every threshold.

Of the 27 parlays placed, 24 hit cleanly. Only three lost due to unrelated college football legs involving Clemson, Florida State and Miami.

During a heated exchange at Thursday’s commission meeting, DraftKings executive Paul Harrington accused the patron of fraud and unethical conduct.

DraftKings told regulators the bets should never have been accepted and argued the patron acted unethically by taking advantage of an obvious error.

Commissioners bristled. One of them, Eileen O’Brien, blasted DraftKings for casting aspersions on the bettor without evidence and said the situation did not meet the standard of an “obvious error.”

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“An obvious error is a legal and factual impossibility,” O’Brien said. “This is an advantage that the patron took.”

She added that DraftKings’ internal failures — not the bettor’s conduct — created the situation.

“We need to seriously consider giving voice to the consumer and getting their half the story,” O’Brien said. “The compulsion to pay will in fact encourage compliance.”

Because of a misclassification inside DraftKings’ trading tools, Lukes was incorrectly labeled a “non-participant” rather than an active player. Getty Images

Other commissioners echoed that view, emphasizing that it is the operator’s responsibility to ensure the integrity of its markets.

The commission noted that DraftKings acknowledged the root cause was internal — a configuration failure within its own trading tools — and not the result of a third-party odds provider or external data feed.

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Upon discovering the error, DraftKings pulled the affected markets, left the wagers unsettled pending regulatory guidance and implemented corrective fixes.

The company said no other Massachusetts customers were impacted, though the same issue appeared in two other jurisdictions.

The Post has sought comment from DraftKings.



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Deadline nears for Massachusetts Health Connector enrollment

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Deadline nears for Massachusetts Health Connector enrollment


SPRINGFIELD — With just days left before the Dec. 23 deadline, state and local leaders are urging uninsured residents to enroll in health coverage through the Massachusetts Health Connector to ensure they’re protected in the new year. The cutoff applies to anyone who wants coverage starting Jan. 1.

The Health Connector — the state’s official health insurance marketplace — is the only place residents can access financial assistance and avoid misleading “junk” policies that often appear in online searches, according to a statement from the agency.

Officials say the enrollment period is especially critical for people without job-based insurance, gig workers, newcomers to the state and anyone seeking affordable, comprehensive health plans.

At a press conference Wednesday at Caring Health Center’s Tania M. Barber Learning Institute in Springfield, health leaders emphasized that most people who sign up through the Connector qualify for help paying premiums through its ConnectorCare program.

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Audrey Morse Gasteier, executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, said the state has spent nearly two decades committed to ensuring access to health care and offering the most affordable coverage possible for everyone.

”And despite the federal challenges, we continue to do everything we can to offer coverage to everyone who needs it. Now is the time for people who don’t have coverage to come in, apply, and find out what kind of plan for which they qualify,” she said.

Open enrollment also gives current members a chance to review their coverage, compare options and make changes.

Recent changes in federal policy have caused shifts in coverage and higher premiums for many Massachusetts residents, creating uncertainty and concern, said Cristina Huebner Torres, chief executive vice president and strategy and research officer at Caring Health Center.

“During times like these, trusted, local support becomes even more essential, and our Navigators have been on the very front lines, helping residents understand their options, maintain coverage, and navigate a complex and evolving system,” Huebner Torres said.

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Massachusetts woman charged with DUI after Simsbury crash

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Massachusetts woman charged with DUI after Simsbury crash


SIMSBURY, Conn. (WTNH) — A Massachusetts woman was arrested Wednesday and charged with DUI after a crash in Simsbury, according to police.

The crash happened at around 2:15 p.m. on Hartford Avenue and Elm Street. Police responded to reports that one of the operators of the vehicles was unconscious, later becoming conscious.

Upon arrival, police found that operator, who was identified as 39-year-old Allison Beu of Southwick, Massachusetts, outside of her vehicle and interacting with the other involved parties.

The two occupants in the other vehicle were not transported to the hospital.

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Beu was charged with DUI and failure to drive in proper lane.



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