Erratum: On the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality: Lost years or lost days?

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1015501.].

Covid-19: Equal response and unequal interests

The greatest risks of Covid-19 are not arising from its direct effects on morbidity and mortality but from exaggerated aspirations to control such effects politically. A swift transformation from an epidemic to an endemic state of affairs may in case of a disease with comparatively low and unequally distributed mortality like covid-19 be an option, too. This needs to be laid out but it is not the task of science to plead for this or any other option. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

COVID-19 mortality in Brazil, 2020-21: consequences of the pandemic inadequate management.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic brought countless challenges to public health and highlighted the Brazilian health system vulnerabilities in facing the emergency. In this article, we analyze data on COVID-19-related deaths in 2020-21 to show the epidemic consequences in Brazil. METHODS: The Mortality Information System and the Live Birth Information System were the primary information sources. We used population estimates in 2020-21 to calculate COVID-19 specific mortality rates by age, sex, and educational level. Considering the total number of COVID-19 deaths in 2020-21, the COVID-19 proportional mortality (%) was estimated for each age group and sex. A graph of the daily number of deaths from January 2020 to December 2021 by sex was elaborated to show the temporal evolution of COVID-19 deaths in Brazil. In addition, four indicators related to COVID-19 mortality were estimated: infant mortality rate (IMR); maternal mortality ratio (MMR); number and rate of orphans due to mother's COVID-19 death; the average number of years lost. RESULTS: The overall COVID-19 mortality rate was 14.8 (/10,000). The mortality rates increase with age and show a decreasing gradient with higher schooling. The rate among illiterate people was 38.8/10,000, three times higher than a college education. Male mortality was 31% higher than female mortality. COVID-19 deaths represented 19.1% of all deaths, with the highest proportions in the age group of 40-59 years. The average number of years lost due to COVID-19 was 19 years. The MMR due to COVID-19 was 35.7 per 100,000 live births (LB), representing 37.4% of the overall MMR. Regarding the number of orphans due to COVID-19, we estimated that 40,830 children under 18 lost their mothers during the epidemic, with an orphans' rate of 7.5/10,000 children aged 0-17 years. The IMR was 11.7 per 1000 LB, with 0.2 caused by COVID-19. The peak of COVID-19 deaths occurred in March 2021, reaching almost 4000 COVID-19 deaths per day, higher than the average number of deaths per day from all causes in 2019. CONCLUSIONS: The delay in adopting public health measures necessary to control the epidemic has exacerbated the spread of the disease, resulting in several avoidable deaths.

On the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality: Lost years or lost days?

Objective: To quantify the (direct and indirect) impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality for actual populations of persons living in 12 European countries in 2020. Method: Based on demographic and mortality data, as well as remaining life expectancies found in the Human Mortality Database, we calculated a "population life loss" in 2020 for men and women living in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. This quantity was obtained by dividing the total number of years lost in 2020 (estimated from all-cause mortality data and attributed directly or indirectly to COVID-19) by the size of the population. Results: A significant population life loss was found in 8 countries in 2020, with men losing an average of 8.7, 5.0, 4.4, 4.0, 3.7, 3.4, 3.1, and 2.7 days in Lithuania, Spain, Belgium, Hungary, Croatia, Portugal, Switzerland, and Sweden, respectively. For women, this loss was 5.5, 4.3, 3.7, 3.7, 3.1, 2.4, 1.6, and 1.4 days, respectively. No significant losses were found in Finland, Luxembourg, Denmark and Norway. Life loss was highly dependent on age, reaching 40 days at the age of 90 in some countries, while only a few significant losses occurred under the age of 60. Even in countries with a significant population life loss in 2020, it was on average about 30 times lower than in 1918, at the time of the Spanish flu. Conclusions: Our results based on the concept of population life loss were consistent with those based on the classical concept of life expectancy, confirming the significant impact of COVID-19 on mortality in 8 European countries in 2020. However, while life expectancy losses were typically counted in months or years, population life losses could be counted in days, a potentially useful piece of information from a public health perspective.

Burden of COVID-19 infection and lockdown measures on individuals with chronic diseases in Saudi Arabia: A national population-based study.

BACKGROUND: The recent COVID-19 crisis has placed a huge strain on the global health and economy. The toll of the damage on the human society exceeds the morbidity and mortality of the pandemic and the associated burden, considering the multidimensional impact on all aspects of life. OBJECTIVES: The present study assessed the specific impact of COVID-19 on individuals with chronic diseases including the Years Lost for Disability (YLD) burden of COVID-19 infection, and multidimensional impact on the disease management, adaptive lifestyle, and socioeconomic dimensions. METHOD: A national, population-based cross-sectional study was conducted among adult Saudi population. An internet-based questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic characteristics, medical history, impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the management of the chronic disease, adaptive lifestyle, and impact of COVID-19 on family members. Additionally, data regarding eventual COVID-19 infection, severity and management were collected. YLD was estimated and normalized per 100,000 persons. RESULT: Having a chronic disease was not associated with a greater risk of COVID-19 (relative risk [RR]=0.83, p = 0.153); however, it was associated with higher risk of declined physical activity (RR=1.30, p < 0.0001), deteriorated eating habit (RR=1.20, p = 0.002), sleep quality (RR=1.25, p < 0.0001), and overall health perception (RR=1.61, p < 0.0001), loss of family members due to COVID-19 (RR=1.96, p = 0.0001), and impacted household income (RR=1.11, p = 0.010). In case of COVID-19 infection, having a chronic disease was associated with increased risk of hospitalization (RR=5.04, p = 0.005) and having a moderate-to-severe form of COVID-19 (RR=6.00, p = 0.013). The overall YLD was estimated to be 17.7 per 100,000 individuals, and there was no significant difference between individuals with chronic diseases and those without. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 entailed a substantial burden on the Saudi society in 2020, and individuals with preexisting chronic diseases suffered more important multidimensional impact, which need further research to assess the real impact of the pandemic and draw the pertinent lessons from the experience for future possible epidemics.

Burden of COVID-19: DALY and productivity loss for Karnataka, India.

Background: COVID-19 is a pandemic that is devastating the world right now quelling over 2.5 million people worldwide. Similarly, in India and its largest southern state Karnataka, the coronavirus is responsible for around 161,000 and 12,449 deaths, respectively. These numbers capture the havoc caused by this novel coronavirus, but fail to discern the complete picture. Objectives: Broadly, this study aimed to study the mortality, morbidity, and the economic issues inflicted by the COVID-19 in the state of Karnataka. Specifically, the study used publically available epidemiological data to study both mortality and morbidity by means of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Furthermore, the study aimed at estimating the permanent losses to the state gross domestic product (SGDP) due to the pandemic. Materials and Methods: Publicly available epidemiological data are used from selected sources and DALYs are computed. The permanent loss to the SGDP is estimated using the human capital approach. Results: The total DALYs for Karnataka are computed to be 22,506 of which 22,041 correspond to mortality and remaining correspond to morbidity. Financially, Karnataka lost around 208 years of productive years of lives costing around ₹590 million rupees to the SGDP. Conclusions: It is found that major burden of COVID-19 during study period is due to mortality. Morbidity accounts for around 2% of the total DALYs. Males are the most affected by the mortality and also the morbidity. With respect to loss in productivity, the losses due to premature mortality of COVID-19 amounted to ₹590 million.

Is Covid-19 a dread risk? The death toll of the pandemic year 2020 in long-term and transnational perspective.

"Dread risks" are threats that can have catastrophic consequences. To analyse this issue we use excess mortality and corresponding life years lost as simple measures of the severity of pandemic events. As such, they are more robust than figures from models and testing procedures that usually inform public responses. We analyse data from OECD countries that are already fully available for the whole of 2020. To assess the severity of the pandemic, we compare with historical demographic events since 1880. Results show that reports of high excess mortality during peak periods and local outbreaks should not be taken as representative. Six countries saw a somewhat more increased percentage of life years lost (over 7%), nine countries show mild figures (0-7%), while seven countries had life year gains of up to 7%. So, by historical standards, Covid-19 is worse than regular flu, but a far cry from the Spanish Flu, which has become the predominant frame of reference for the current pandemic. Even though the demographic impact is modest, psychological aspects of the pandemic can still lead to transformative futures, as the reactions of East Asian societies to SARS I in 2003 showed.