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> 1 in 350 Americans died of COVID in the past two years Putting 1/700 a year death from covid into context of our overall mortality rate: 1,027.0 deaths per 1

> 1 in 350 Americans died of COVID in the past two years Putting 1/700 a year death from covid into context of our overall mortality rate: 1,027.0 deaths per 100,000 population [0] I know more under 40 that have died from overdose in the past two years than I know that have died from covid (which is 0) [0] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

nukemaster 4y ago
I actually don't know a single young person who died from Covid over the pandemic but I know a few who committed suicide and a couple more who attempted it.
- notafraudster 4y ago
  There have been about 24,000 people under age 40 who died from COVID-19 in the US during the pandemic. Suicide data is not available for 2021/2022 yet, but based the age ratio of past suicides (around 50% of suicides below age 40) and the total number of suicides in 2020 (around 40,000), then the number of suicides is likely to be higher than the number of COVID deaths but in the same qualitative arena. Further apples to apples comparison is tough because kids 0-5 die of COVID but the US does not record any death below age 5 as a suicide. A related comparison: more school age children died of COVID during the pandemic than have ever across all history died from school shootings.
  - nukemaster 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
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tptacek 4y ago
Overdose deaths are a public health calamity. COVID topped them by an integer multiple.
- fortran77 4y ago
  I think that depends where. In San Francisco, there were more OD deaths than COVID https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/04/29/fact-check-did-san-francisco-have-twice-as-many-drug-overdose-deaths-as-covid-deaths-in-2020/ https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/04/29/fact-check-did-...
- michael_j_ward 4y ago
  Given ~67k deaths under 50 years old total from COVID [0] and over 100k overdose deaths in 2021 alone [1], I'll wager heavily that is not true for the under 50 crowd. [0] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#SexAndAge https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#Se... [1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2021/20211117.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2021/...
- throwaway0a5e 4y ago
  Overdoses kill young and middle aged people. Covid skewed old. No amount of screeching will change the fact that people are far more mentally prepared for grandma to keel over with little warning than they are to lose a random uncle or coworker.
  - ModernMech 4y ago
    > No amount of screeching will change the fact that people are far more mentally prepared for grandma to keel over with little warning than they are to lose a random uncle or coworker. That depends. If a coworker dies because they did drugs, you might say to yourself "I'm safe from that mode of death as long as I don't do drugs". If a random coworker dies because of Covid that they caught on the job, you might say to yourself "I'm next", the result being existential dread and anxiety. It's true covid skewed old, but people quote the stats of dead young people in the last 2 years as if people were mentally prepared for that. Overdoses don't kill young families in a matter of weeks, but Covid did. Overdoses don't bring down 43 teachers in a school system over the course of a few months, whose average age was 46, but Covid did that. Covid brought all kinds of unique and deep tragedies that aren't reflected in the stats, and people are still dealing with the emotional fallout. Again I understand that covid skewed old, but grandma is already dead and has been since before Covid. Now my parents are "old" at 65, but I'm not mentally prepared for them to die at all. If their parents are any indication I still have a good 20 years left with them, and so I get really upset when people try to discount their lives as if they wouldn't be missed if they were to die from Covid, or if somehow that's just nature taking its course. Really this shouldn't be a contest of whose death counts more to society.
kenjackson 4y ago
I don't know anyone under 40 who died, period. But I know four people over 40 (actually over 60) who died of Covid in the past two years. Even though they are older, it still felt like a crisis.

nukemaster 4y ago

I actually don't know a single young person who died from Covid over the pandemic but I know a few who committed suicide and a couple more who attempted it.

notafraudster 4y ago
There have been about 24,000 people under age 40 who died from COVID-19 in the US during the pandemic. Suicide data is not available for 2021/2022 yet, but based the age ratio of past suicides (around 50% of suicides below age 40) and the total number of suicides in 2020 (around 40,000), then the number of suicides is likely to be higher than the number of COVID deaths but in the same qualitative arena. Further apples to apples comparison is tough because kids 0-5 die of COVID but the US does not record any death below age 5 as a suicide. A related comparison: more school age children died of COVID during the pandemic than have ever across all history died from school shootings.
- nukemaster 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

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tptacek 4y ago

Overdose deaths are a public health calamity. COVID topped them by an integer multiple.

fortran77 4y ago
I think that depends where. In San Francisco, there were more OD deaths than COVID https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/04/29/fact-check-did-san-francisco-have-twice-as-many-drug-overdose-deaths-as-covid-deaths-in-2020/ https://www.capradio.org/articles/2021/04/29/fact-check-did-...
michael_j_ward 4y ago
Given ~67k deaths under 50 years old total from COVID [0] and over 100k overdose deaths in 2021 alone [1], I'll wager heavily that is not true for the under 50 crowd. [0] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#SexAndAge https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#Se... [1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2021/20211117.htm https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2021/...
throwaway0a5e 4y ago
Overdoses kill young and middle aged people. Covid skewed old. No amount of screeching will change the fact that people are far more mentally prepared for grandma to keel over with little warning than they are to lose a random uncle or coworker.
- ModernMech 4y ago
  > No amount of screeching will change the fact that people are far more mentally prepared for grandma to keel over with little warning than they are to lose a random uncle or coworker. That depends. If a coworker dies because they did drugs, you might say to yourself "I'm safe from that mode of death as long as I don't do drugs". If a random coworker dies because of Covid that they caught on the job, you might say to yourself "I'm next", the result being existential dread and anxiety. It's true covid skewed old, but people quote the stats of dead young people in the last 2 years as if people were mentally prepared for that. Overdoses don't kill young families in a matter of weeks, but Covid did. Overdoses don't bring down 43 teachers in a school system over the course of a few months, whose average age was 46, but Covid did that. Covid brought all kinds of unique and deep tragedies that aren't reflected in the stats, and people are still dealing with the emotional fallout. Again I understand that covid skewed old, but grandma is already dead and has been since before Covid. Now my parents are "old" at 65, but I'm not mentally prepared for them to die at all. If their parents are any indication I still have a good 20 years left with them, and so I get really upset when people try to discount their lives as if they wouldn't be missed if they were to die from Covid, or if somehow that's just nature taking its course. Really this shouldn't be a contest of whose death counts more to society.

kenjackson 4y ago

I don't know anyone under 40 who died, period. But I know four people over 40 (actually over 60) who died of Covid in the past two years. Even though they are older, it still felt like a crisis.