Analysis by Keith Rankin.
A couple of weeks ago I received a number of articles mainly about Covid19 deaths in the United States. (See below.) As I have noted in the past, it is important to address the reported facts, rather than to ignore them.
As they stand, these articles are being used to question the safety of Covid19 vaccinations. It seems more likely to me that, while real, these deaths are linked to the pandemic in other ways. A comparative analysis is useful.
Here I post five charts of Covid19 deaths by age. The first two are the USA and France.
Certainly, the United States shows significant numbers of young pandemic-linked deaths. But we need to understand that pre-covid life-expectancy in the United States was about five years less than France. The United States has had lots of pre-covid comorbidities, and probably many more comorbidities arising from its experiences during the pandemic.
France, which had as much covid and at least as many vaccinations per capita as the United States, shows a quite different pattern of death from the USA; much less death of younger people.
We may also look at the United Kingdom, Spain and Israel.
The United Kingdom shows an unusual similarity of excess pandemic deaths by age, except that the latest wave it is clearly more like the very first wave, with people over 75 most affected.
While Spain shows a more chronic death pattern for the younger age group than United Kingdom, its chart otherwise looks much like that British chart. And Israel clearly shows the younger age group as having fewer excess deaths relative to expected deaths.
(But note also this similar chart for Italy. It does point to significant younger Covid19 deaths there, especially in 2021.)
So, of all these countries, it is mainly the USA – the only one with a life expectancy at birth below 80 – which shows the younger age group prominently impacted. Re vaccinations, we know that it was Israel and United Kingdom that particularly led the way.
So yes, pandemic deaths of younger people have been a particular problem in some countries, especially the USA. But it also looks as if we need to look more widely for the reasons; and not to scapegoat the vaccines which – I am confidently sure – have saved many lives, young and old.
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Keith Rankin (keith at rankin dot nz), trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/02/24/life-f24.html
https://www.thepostemail.com/2022/06/20/the-latest-tragedy-sudden-adult-death-syndrome/
