Data for COVID-19 Mortality in Older People in the US

The general consensus on mortality due to COVID-19 is that it falls most heavily on people who are more impacted by aging: poor immune function when it comes to defense against pathogens; high levels of chronic inflammation that create a greater susceptibility to the way in which SARS-CoV-2 kills people; existing chronic disease; and a mortality rate that is already high even setting aside the pandemic. When younger people die due to the virus, in much smaller numbers, it is where they share these characteristics of inflammation, deficient immune systems, and chronic disease. This level of morbidity is unusual in younger individuals, but very prevalent in the old. In today's open access commentary we see that COVID-19 mortality in older people is becoming comparable to that of the major age-related conditions, such as cancer. Those killed by COVID-19 are largely people with greater degrees of frailty and a shorter remaining life expectancy. We might see mortality fall significantly in the next few years, after the present pandemic mortality subsides due to the combination of vaccination and immunity to this virus. An appreciable fraction of those individuals who would have survived to die of non-communicable age-related conditions in 2021 or 2022 are dying now. As to the numbers themselves, COVID-19 appears to continue to be on track to be at the worse end of the expected 3 to 6 times multiple of a bad influenza year: 300,000 deaths in the US versus 60,000 for t...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs