Fall in U.S. life expectancy from COVID-19 deaths and long-term health effects

As we get older, our immune system — our body’s defense system — tends to get weaker.

Not only do you have fewer immune cells as you age, the ones you do have don’t communicate with each other as well. That means they take longer to react to harmful germs. Your body also produces fewer immune cells, including white blood cells, which can slow down healing. (WebMD)

The COVID-19 virus especially targets the elderly with aging immune systems, and those already ill with pre-existing conditions.

Citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rachel Nania reports for the AARP on October 30, 2020 that:

• 95% of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. were among people who were 50 or older, even though people under age 50 accounted for the majority of reported coronavirus cases.
• About 8 in 10 deaths were among people 65 and older.

A year of COVID-19 has had its toll in life expectancy.

Dennis Thompson reports for HealthDay, Feb. 18, 2021, that a new report by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), published in the Vital Statistics Rapid Release, found that average life expectancy in the United States took a drastic plunge during the first half of 2020. Overall U.S. life expectancy dropped to 77.8 years, down one full year from the 78.8 years estimated in 2019.

To put those numbers in context, it made headlines when average U.S. life expectancy, after years of steady increases, dropped by just 0.2 years between 2014 and 2015.

The NCHS report also found that life expectancy varied much more widely when gender and ethnicity were taken into account:

• Black male life expectancy dropped by 3 years (71.3 to 68.3)
• Hispanic males lost 2.4 years of life expectancy (79 to 76.6)
• Black females had a 2.3-year decline (78.1 to 75.8)
• Hispanic females had a 1.1-year decline (84.4 to 83.3)
• By comparison, white males had a decline in life expectancy of 0.8 years (76.3 to 75.5), while white women had a 0.7-year decline (81.3 to 80.6).

Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, noted that during the pandemic America lost more people than it did during the entire span of World War II, including deaths both in combat and on the home front: “We had over 400,000 people die in the five-year period of World War II, and we’ve done that in one year. That should get people’s attention. And it’s not over yet.”

Benjamin said that the nearly three-year decline in life span among Black Americans is especially troubling: “These are enormous differences in life expectancy. It’s a big deal to lose a year, but to lose three years, that’s staggering.”

Jesse Schold, director of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute’s Center for Populations Health Research, pointed out that life expectancy for all Americans likely also took a hit because of other factors, including:

• The pandemic prompted people to forgo health screenings that would have caught potentially life-threatening illnesses. 
• People who had lost their jobs and in lockdown were more likely to eat poorly, drink more alcohol and use drugs. In fact, overdoses have increased during the pandemic.

Add to the above factors this: Some sick people avoided going to the hospital for treatments because they were afraid of getting the coronavirus in the germ-filled hospital setting.

COVID-19 is a demon virus.

The fall in U.S. life expectancy is expected to continue because many people who contracted COVID-19 have long-term health problems that can ultimately limit their life span.

From U Miami Health News:

For many who contract the novel coronavirus, the manifestations of the disease tend to the mild and moderate, with improvement in a couple of weeks. But for those who survive COVID-19 after intubation and a long hospital stay, the health ramifications may last long after they are discharged.

COVID-19 is showing itself to be much more than respiratory disease. It can affect organs beyond the lungs — from the skin to the kidneys — potentially creating long-term health issues.

(1) Heart:

According to Robert Myerburg, M.D., a cardiac electrophysiologist at UHealth, some viral infections may affect the heart long-term as a result of leaving behind some of their viral DNA, potentially causing continuing heart damage. Myerburg said that many COVID-19 related cardiac problems are “secondary” to pulmonary issues, but the effects are nevertheless serious on our tickers and cardiovascular system, resulting in a variety of conditions, from heart failure to heart rhythm problems to clotting.

There is also some emerging evidence regarding direct coronavirus infections in the heart:

• UHealth cardiologists estimate that about a third of their coronavirus patients develop myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle that reduces the organ’s ability to pump blood.
• In addition to arrhythmias, a patient can suffer from chest paint, shortness of breath, and fatigue.
• Doctors are also noting cases of abnormal clotting, including those in large vessels such as deep vein thrombosis in the legs and lungs, and smaller clots in smaller vessels in multiple organs. A clot can cause strokes, lung blockages, and heart attacks, sometimes resulting in death. Most worrisome? This unusual clotting is happening even while patients are on blood thinners.

(2) Kidney:

Early reports suggest that up to 30% of hospitalized coronavirus patients develop moderate to severe kidney injury. Many of them already suffered from conditions, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, that make them more susceptible to kidney disease. Nephrologist Oliver Lenz, M.D., said: “But even in the absence of underlying kidney disease patients with severe COVID-19 may develop acute kidney failure and require dialysis.”

(3) Digestive tract:

COVID-19 sometimes presents with abdominal pain and diarrhea as well as nausea and vomiting and loss of appetite. In one small and unpeer-reviewed study, GI issues were not nearly as common as respiratory and heart symptoms, but they appeared to last longer than expected, with 10% reporting they still had diarrhea for the three weeks in which they were followed.

While there’s little data about long-lasting GI issues, doctors warn that patients with chronic digestive conditions, such as digestive cancers, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and liver diseases, might be more vulnerable to the coronavirus.

(4) Brain and neurological system:

Just as COVID-19 damages other organs, scientists have discovered that the virus can also cause neurological problems, from seizures to hallucinations to mental confusion. This could be a result of oxygen starvation or the aftermath of the cytokine storm when the body’s immune system overreacts to the virus.

Reports cite cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, an affliction that can lead to temporary paralysis, as well as dizziness, headaches, temporary loss of smell and taste, agitation, and confusion. However, there is no data, whether such symptoms, tracked during the course of the disease, will prove to be permanent.

All of which might explain the puzzling forecast by a military-aviation website of economic collapse & massive depopulation for the U.S. by 2025.

For those who still doubt the reality of COVID-19, here is a video from Todd Herman, who regularly guest-hosts on the Rush Limbaugh radio talk show:

UPDATE (Feb. 20, 2021):

This is an outrage.

The lab in Wuhan, China, from which the virus had leaked in Fall 2019, is approved for U.S. taxpayer funding for animal research until January 2024, the National Institute of Health told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is at the center of widespread speculation that COVID-19 could have entered the human population in China due to an accidental lab leak. Researchers at the lab were studying bat-based coronaviruses prior to the outbreak, a project partially backed by 600,000 in U.S. taxpayer funds routed to the lab through the nonprofit group EcoHealth Alliance. (Epoch Times)