News Scan for Feb 16, 2022

Pandemic deaths hit poor communities harder than rich ones, data showA new study comparing excess years of life lost (YLL) during the first year of COVID-19 in parts of England and Wales shows that economically deprived areas suffered three times as many deaths as affluent regions, and young adults (15 to 44 years old) were 11 times more likely to die from the virus in poorer parts of the United Kingdom.

The study is published in PLOS Medicine.Though excess deaths have been used as a metric during the pandemic, the researchers from the University of Manchester said excess YLL accounts for the differences in ages at which people die in different social groups and may be a better measure of how seriously a community has been affected by the pandemic.The authors used national mortality registers in England and Wales from Dec 27, 2014, until Dec 25, 2020, covering 3,265,937 deaths, to measure YLL attributable to the pandemic.The authors found an average of 1,645 YLL per 100,000 of the population in the most deprived areas, which included London and North Western England, compared with 916 YYL per 100,000 people in the most affluent parts of the country."For all-cause mortality, estimated deaths in the most deprived compared to the most affluent areas were much higher in younger age groups, but similar for those aged 85 or over," the authors wrote.In a press release, lead author Evangelos Kontopantelis, PhD, said, "The impact of the pandemic, when quantified using years of life lost, was higher than previously thought, on the most deprived areas of England and Wales, widening pre-existing health inequalities." Feb 15 PLOS Med study Feb 15 PLOS press releaseCOVID vax–related myocarditis may be milder than that of other causesW