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Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death for people over 15 and the leading cause for 45-54 year olds in the United States between March 2020 and October 2021. This is shown by a study of certificate data. of American deaths published on July 5 in the American journal JAMA.
1 in 8 deaths between March 2020 and October 2021
During the 20-month period studied by the researchers, Covid-19 caused 8 deaths. According to the researchers, Covid-19 caused approximately 700,000 deaths between March 2020 and October 2021.
Cardiovascular diseases and cancer are ahead of the virus in terms of mortality because these pathologies caused a total of about 1.29 million deaths over the same period, according to the study.
Covid-19 mortality varies by age
Many studies had shown it: the age groups are unequal in the face of the virus. Although in every age group 15 and older, the virus was one of the top five causes of death over the time period studied, the researchers came up with a rather surprising result.
Indeed, between January and October 2021, the epidemic was the leading cause of death among people aged 45 to 54, while in 2020, Covid-19 was the fourth leading cause of death for this group of people. age.
Among those aged 35 to 44, Covid-19 fell from the fifth leading cause of death in 2020 to the second in 2021. And for people aged 15 to 34, the virus was not in the top 5 in 2020 but ranked as the fourth leading cause of death in the age group in 2021.
For people aged 55 to 84, Covid-19 was the third leading cause of death in 2020 and 2021. Among people aged 85 and over, the virus was the second leading cause of death in 2020, but fell in third place in 2021, likely due to targeted vaccination in this age group.
An indirect impact that remains to be assessed
The researchers wanted to recall the indirect effect that the pandemic had on the number of deaths: “From 2019 to 2020, death rates increased for heart disease, accidents, strokes, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes”. They see a possible explanation: people may have been more hesitant to seek treatment for fear of being infected with Covid-19.
According to the researchers, the impacts of the pandemic on other causes of death could appear in the years to come. Thus, the pandemic has prevented many people from undergoing regular cancer screening, which could lead to an increase in deaths related to this pathology.
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What about France?
Santé Publique France published a report in February 2022 on the evolution of mortality in France, not over the period 2020-2021 as in the United States, but since November 2021.
According to Public Health France, an increase in mortality has been observed since November 2021 in France, from all causes combined. However, the health agency insists on the increase in the number of “death with a mention of COVID-19 in the medical causes of death”the number of “deaths of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infections in hospital” and the number of “death of residents with SARS-CoV-2 infection in a nursing home”.
Regarding the age of patients who died during this period, the most affected are people aged 60 and over. To explain this rise, Santé Publique France wrote: “The increase in mortality follows the very sharp increase in Covid-19 contaminations and hospitalizations recorded since the start of the fifth epidemic wave in November 2021”.