The hidden cost of Covid-19: years of life lost among the young - STAT

The hidden cost of Covid-19: years of life lost among the young - STAT: Pandemic-related deaths are most common among old and vulnerable individuals. But years of life lost reveals its impact on the young. 

"While every premature death brings tragedy to a family, deaths among younger and middle-aged adults steal more years of life. For example, 80-year-olds who died from the pandemic lost about 7.7 years of life on average, but 40-year-olds who died lost about 36 years on average. When we accounted for the number of years lived in good health, rather than simply the number of years lived, the gap between young and old widened even further: 40-year-olds who died lost more than five times the number of healthy years as did 80-year-olds.

The focus on deaths affecting mainly the elderly is unfortunate because it likely created a false sense of security among the young. That has led to lower vaccination rates, resistance to preventive measures, and now, tragically, growing death rates. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of people in their 30s who died of the virus in August was about 50% higher than the number who died in January, the month with the highest number of deaths recorded in the U.S."