Huge study: Covid “stole” our lives

A huge study revealed that the new Corona virus caused a decrease in the average life expectancy of individuals by about one year and 6 months during the first two years of the epidemic.

Researchers examining data from the US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) explained that this represents a sharp reversal in light of the "decades-long" rise in average life expectancy globally.

“For adults around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a more profound impact than any event in half a century, including conflicts and natural disasters,” said Austin Schumacher, a researcher at IHME and lead author of the study published in the Lancet. . 

He explained that life expectancy decreased in 84% of the 204 countries and regions analyzed in the period 2020-2021, indicating the potentially devastating effects of new viruses.

The researchers estimated that the death rate for people over the age of 15 rose by 22% for men and 17% for women during that period.

Life expectancy fell at greater rates in Mexico City, Peru, and Bolivia than in others.

The number of deaths among children under the age of five decreased by half a million in 2021 compared to 2019, representing a continuation of the long-term decline in child mortality.

The researchers estimated that Covid was responsible for 15.9 million excess deaths during the period 2020-2021, either directly due to the virus or indirectly as a result of pandemic-related disruptions. This means one million more deaths than previously estimated by the World Health Organization.

Excess deaths are calculated by comparing the total number of deaths with the number expected if there had been no pandemic.

Barbados, New Zealand and Antigua and Barbuda were among the countries with the lowest rates of excess deaths during the pandemic, partly reflecting how isolated islands often escaped the brunt of Covid-19.

The study also showed how the population in many developed and rich countries has begun to decline, while numbers continue to grow in less wealthy countries.

Schumacher warned that this dynamic "will lead to unprecedented social, economic and political challenges, such as labor shortages in areas where younger populations are shrinking and resource scarcity in places where population size continues to expand rapidly."