People aged 25-44 are more likely to die from various causes amid pandemic, study claims

The mortality rate of people aged 25-44 in 2020 turned out to be abnormally high as amid the pandemic, young people began to die more often for a variety of reasons.

According to a new study published in the scientific journal JAMA, scientists have calculated the expected mortality rate of people aged 25-44 in the United States in 2020, based on statistics collected in 2015-2019. The resulting numbers were then compared with real mortality between March 1 and July 31, 2020.

About 76,000 people aged 25-44 died during the period under review in the US, which is almost 12,000 more than the estimated data. About 4,500 of these people have died from COVID-19. Thus, coronavirus infection was directly responsible for 38% of excess mortality.

In recent years, the leading cause of death in people aged 25-44 in the United States is an opiate overdose. However, according to scientists, in 2020, in some regions, COVID-19 bypassed overdose and became the main cause of death.

The authors of the study do not explain the reasons for the excess mortality of young people amid the pandemic. However, they note that the coronavirus could directly cause more deaths due to unrecorded cases.