Four times more deaths from corona than from flu – especially in one age group
Created: 05/27/2022, 11:55 am
By: Juliane Gutmann
British researchers have evaluated how many people have died of Covid-19 since March 2020.
A comparison with flu deaths shows how dangerous Corona was during this period.
Influenza and Covid-19 can be deadly.
But which disease is more dangerous for humans?
European analysts from Great Britain have dealt with this question.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has now revealed which disease has killed more people in England and Wales since March 2020.
"
Coronavirus (Covid-19) has been the cause of more than four times as many deaths as influenza and pneumonia in England and Wales since March 2020
," the ONS said.
The numbers in detail: Between 13 March 2020 and 1 April 2022 there were 148,606 deaths in England and Wales where Covid-19 was identified as the underlying cause of death, compared to 35,007 deaths from flu and pneumonia.
However, it can be observed that mortality from Covid-19 has fallen steadily since the beginning of the pandemic, the ONS said.
It is not yet clear whether the disease will behave similarly to flu or pneumonia in the future.
Will Corona soon become a
"normal" cold virus
?
Virologists are cautiously optimistic about new corona variants, such as Bundeswehr virologist Professor Roman Wölfel.
If the course of the corona virus is very severe, patients must be treated in the hospital.
Doctors and nurses cannot always save their lives.
(Archive image) © Ole Spata/dpa
Corona deaths by age: 40 to 79 year olds suffer more often from a severe course
The researchers also noted differences with regard to the age of the deceased.
The people who died from Corona were on average younger than those who died from the flu.
In January 2021 - at the peak of corona-related deaths - about 32 times more 40-59 year olds and 60-79 year olds died from Covid-19 than from flu and pneumonia.
There were 16 times as many among those aged 80 and over and 14 times as many among those under 40, quoted the medical journal from the ONS survey.
The risk of dying from Covid-19 appears to have increased most among those aged 40 to 79, the conclusions are.
In order to put the figures in relation, the statistics of the last decades must be consulted.
"Covid-19 was the cause of 73,766 deaths in 2020 and 67,258 deaths in 2021. The last time influenza and pneumonia-related deaths reached similar levels was 1929 (73,212 deaths)," the Office for National Statistics reports.
In the 20th century, an average of about 43,000 people died each year from influenza and pneumonia
, it said.
However, the introduction of the flu vaccination in 2000 dropped this number to under 30,000.
(jg)