Spain has almost recovered the life expectancy lost by Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a prolonged impact on life expectancy levels, leading to unprecedented changes in mortality in the world in the last 70 years. These are data from an article published in « Nature Human Behavior ». These divergent trends, based on data from 29 countries, illustrate how the populations of some countries were more severely affected by the pandemic than others in 2021. The study also leaves a clear message: Countries with a higher rate of fully vaccinated people experienced a smaller reduction in life expectancy. Life expectancy is a useful indicator of the general health of the population and is often used to compare the health of the population between countries. Furthermore, changes in life expectancy in 2021 may show the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccination acceptance, which have been very different between countries. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany, used data on deaths from 29 countries between 2015 and 2021 to assess changes in life expectancy. In 2021 there was a clear geographical division. Thus, most European countries recovered life expectancy after the decrease observed in 2020. Only in four of the countries evaluated (France, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden) did life expectancy recover to pre-2020 levels. the pandemic in 2021. Other Western European nations, such as Spain, only partially recovered in 2021, while some countries, such as the US, Chile, and Eastern European countries (except Slovenia), continued to experience a fall in life expectancy. However, Eastern European countries and the US witnessed a deterioration in life expectancy during the same period. For example, the scale of life expectancy losses in Eastern Europe was similar to that which occurred in the breakup of the Soviet Union. This East-West split in life expectancy during Covid-19 reflects a greater deterioration in those countries that had lower life expectancy levels before the pandemic. Especially affected has been Bulgaria, with a decrease in life expectancy of almost 43 months, during the two years of the pandemic. The scale of life expectancy losses in Eastern Europe was similar to that which occurred in the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Bulgaria is joined by Chile, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia. The researchers also looked at the proportion of the population that was fully vaccinated and found that reduced life expectancy was associated with lower vaccination uptake. Related News standard No Social measures in the pandemic prevented 127,000 Galicians from falling into poverty Natalia Sequeiro EAPN asks the Xunta to recover the basic card in the face of price increases In addition to life expectancy prior to the pandemic, there seemed to be an effect of vaccination that followed the same East-West divide in Europe. Countries with higher proportions of fully vaccinated people experienced smaller life expectancy deficits. The oldest ages, especially those over 80 years of age who had seen the most deaths in 2020, benefited from the protection of the vaccine and a decrease in excess mortality in 2021. For Ridhi Kashyap, co-author of the study «a Notable change between 2020 and 2021 was that the age patterns of excess mortality shifted in 2021 toward younger age groups, as vaccines began to protect the elderly.” But there were ‘outliers’, who had surprisingly high life expectancy losses, despite high vaccination rates. Life expectancy losses during recurrent influenza epidemics in the second half of the 20th century have been much less Historically, previous global epidemics have seen life expectancy levels recover fairly quickly. But the scale and magnitude of Covid-19, in terms of mortality, confound claims that it has had no more impact than a flu-like illness. For example, the losses in life expectancy during the recurrent epidemics of influenza during the second half of the 20th century have been much smaller and less widespread than those observed in the pandemic. The authors conclude that as a number of countries have experienced unprecedented continuous declines in life expectancy over the past 70 years, there is a potential for some countries to experience a longer-term health crisis. For Diego Ramiro Fariñas, director of the Institute of Economy, Geography and Demography of the CSIC, “the conclusions fit very well with the existing evidence, by showing the effect that a slow or inefficient vaccination can have on deaths and, therefore, on loss of life expectancy. Ramiro, speaking to SMC, warns that the “persistent loss of life expectancy due to Covid-19 in Eastern Europe and the recovery of life expectancy in the West, it is not known if they will create a new division in terms of patterns of mortality and life expectancy between east and west”. Related News standard No The covid reduced the birth rate in Europe by 14% RI The confinement together with the fear and saturation of hospitals in the future seem to be responsible for the fact that nine months after the closure in Europe the rate of death has decreased birth rate in most countries The CSIC expert highlights that the work “shows the positive effect of rapid, efficient and widespread vaccination, and of non-pharmaceutical measures in the fight against a pandemic like the current one, which have saved lives and, therefore, reduce the effects of the loss of life expectancy ». However, the authors express concern about the possible broader international impact of the pandemic. Another co-author of the study, José Manuel Aburto, argues that “in 2020, the losses in life expectancy suffered in Brazil and Mexico exceeded those experienced in the US, so it is likely that these countries have continued to suffer impacts in the mortality in 2021, even potentially exceeding the 43 months we estimate for Bulgaria.” The paper concludes that it is plausible that countries with ineffective public health responses will experience a prolonged pandemic-induced health crisis with medium-term stagnation in life expectancy improvements, while other regions achieve a smoother recovery to return. to pre-pandemic trends.