COVID Deaths Increased Among Young In 2021 – The researchers noted that understanding the factors that contributed to this age-shift mortality is essential in further developing our knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic
A new study has shown that the death rates among young people increased while among older people it decreased in 2021. The study has been conducted by two investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in the US.
The researchers observed an increase in the “years of life lost” because more young people died from COVID-19 in the first two years of the pandemic. The researchers also found a lot of differences in the way infections happened during the two years.
“There were a lot of changes between the first and second years of the Covid-19 pandemic,” said the study author Mark Czeisler.
What did the study find?
The study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine observed that age and pre-existing health conditions played a major role in how the virus affected the population in general. The researchers found systematic and behavioural changes in response to COVID-19. The study observed that the mortality rate was higher for older adults in 2020. However, this age group exhibited a relatively higher vaccination rate and adhered to non-pharmaceutical interventions. Also by early 2021, with the improved course of treatment, there were some behavioural changes in response to the viral disease.
“A shift in Covid-19 mortality to relatively younger people in the second pandemic year contributed to markedly increased premature mortality from this increasingly preventable death,” said Czeisler, the author of the study. The researchers noted that understanding the factors that contributed to this age-shift mortality is essential in developing our knowledge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What could be the reasons?
During the second wave, it became confusing when more younger people started dying around us. Was it that older people were more vaccinated or did the Delta variant specifically caused serious illness in younger adults? These were common questions that had bugged our minds. As per some experts, greater social interaction owing to jobs could explain the higher infections in the age group below 40. Since the Delta variant was by nature virulent and destructive, young people were far more exposed to the threat. It was also acknowledged that more testing happened among younger adults who went out there to perform various duties. Chronic illness was also associated with the likelihood of severe disease and death. Young people suffering from diabetes, hypertension and other chronic conditions suffered the life-threatening impact of the virulent strain.
Some experts also suspected cases of ‘happy or silent hypoxia’ where many young people didn’t recognize their oxygen levels were going down and they didn’t take any intervention for it. – COVID Deaths Increased Among Young In 2021
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