Increase in Death Rate Highest Among People Age 25 to 44
The pandemic is affecting young adults more than has been realized when analyzed on a percentage basis
Covid-19 has had a greater effect on young and middle-aged adults than previously recognized, according to a new analysis from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While it’s long been established that older adults are most at risk from dying from Covid-19, and in raw numbers they’ve seen the bulk of deaths, the percentage increase in excess deaths so far this year compared to other years is highest among people age 25 to 44, at 26%. People of color have also seen outsized increases.
Similar to an analysis reported last week in Elemental, the new one finds more excess deaths this year than can be explained by the official Covid-19 death toll alone.
From January 1 through Oct. 3 this year, there were 299,028 more deaths compared to the average in the years 2015 to 2019, the CDC finds. Only 198,081 of those excess deaths, or 66%, were formally attributed to Covid-19. The rest are thought to be a combination of Covid deaths that were not reported as such and deaths from other causes attributable to people not getting proper health care amid the pressures of the pandemic.
