The lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a massive spike in excess deaths in the United States, with a 26% rise in excess deaths among working-age adults.
That figure is significant, because the vast majority of COVID deaths was among elderly people who have more than two chronic illnesses, or comorbidities, suggesting a cause other than COVID-19 itself.
The excess mortality rate for all people over 65 was 18%, according to the study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
The researchers, Summit News reported, found that while COVID deaths “overwhelmingly afflict senior citizens, absolute numbers of non-Covid excess deaths are similar for each of the 18-44, 45-64, and over-65 age groups.”
Conservatively, there were more than 170,000 non-COVID excess deaths in the U.S. through 2020 and 2021, the researchers concluded. But they believe the actual number is closer to 200,000, taking into account as estimated 72,000 “unmeasured Covid deaths.”
The Economist magazine, which has assembled mortality data around the world, had a similar U.S. estimate, 199,000, which included unmeasured COVID deaths. That amounts to about 60 persons per 100,000.
For the European Union as a whole, they found, the estimate is about the same, 64 non-COVID excess deaths per 100,000.
Their estimate for Sweden, which did not enforce strict lockdowns and mask mandates, is about 33 per 100,000.
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The World Health Organization released figures last month indicating Sweden had fewer COVID deaths per capita than much of Europe. The Telegraph of London reported that in 2020 and 2021, the Scandinavian nation had an average excess death rate of 56 per 100,000, compared to 109 in the U.K., 111 in Spain, 116 in Germany and 133 in Italy.
A meta-analysis by Johns Hopkins University released in February concluded the costs of the lockdowns outweighed any benefits.
In their examination of more than 18,000 studies, the researchers found that during the first COVID wave in the spring of 2020, lockdowns in the U.S. and Europe reduced COVID mortality by only 0.2%.
“While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted,” the researchers concluded.
The Brownstone Institute, meanwhile, has compiled more than 400 studies demonstrating the “failure of compulsory COVID interventions, including lockdowns, closures and other restrictions on everyday life.
As WND reported in December, the CDC warned that measles has become a growing global threat because of disruptions to childhood vaccinations caused by the lockdowns.
The WHO, in its latest malaria report, said in December that amid “disruptions” to health services during the COVID-19 pandemic, malaria cases and deaths rose significantly in 2020 compared to the previous year.
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