Every day we receive new shocking news about corona cases and corona deaths.
How dangerous is Covid-19 really?
A comparison of the deaths in Germany.
Tuberculosis
was considered the world's deadliest
infectious disease
- at least for 2019. According to the
World Health Organization (WHO),
ten million people in the world contracted tuberculosis
last year
, around 1.4 million of whom died.
The WHO currently reports (as of December 17, 2020) over 72 million
Covid-19 cases
and more than 1.6 million deaths related to Covid-19.
Corona
overtook the world's deadliest infectious disease to date in 2020, as
reported by echo24.de
*.
But how deadly is Corona in
Germany
really?
Coronavirus and flu: large fluctuations in deaths every year
First of all, it is worth taking a look at the past: In 2019,
a total of 939,520 people
died in
Germany
.
The most common
cause of death
in 2019 - as in previous years - was
cardiovascular disease
.
Over a third of all deaths (35.3 percent) were due to it.
The second leading cause of death was
cancer
.
4.4 percent of all
deaths
were from an unnatural cause such as injury or poisoning.
But these are numbers from the year when the
corona pandemic
had not yet changed people's lives in Germany.
And what about
infectious diseases
like the
flu
?
There were large fluctuations in
the number of
flu deaths
every year.
In 2017 and 2018,
outbreaks of flu
led to an increase in the death rate.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, 107,100 people
died in
Germany
in a particularly violent flu
epidemic in
March 2018
.
For comparison: in March 2019 there were 86,500, in March 2020 87,100.
In some cases, the RKI estimated the
deaths
from seasonal influenza infections to be up to 25,000 (2017/2018).
Coronavirus Germany: Significantly more deaths in April 2020
At the beginning,
Germany got
through the
corona pandemic
comparatively well compared to other countries
.
And yet: As Dr.
Felix zur Nieden from
the Federal Statistical Office
explained in a podcast that the number of
deaths was
significantly increased in the last week in March 2020 and throughout April.
At the same time, according to the
RKI,
an increase in
deaths
related to the
coronavirus was
observed
.
In April alone, the number of deaths, at 83,800 people, was ten percent (7,422 people, specifically) above the average of previous years - despite the
corona measures
that were
already in place at the time to
contain
the
infection rate
.
Such an increase in
deaths
in this month of the year is completely atypical, the flu wave was already over at this point in time.
But why did
n't
the
death toll
already
rise
in March during the first
high corona phase
?
It must be taken into account that
studies show
that
patients
with a severe course only
die
on average three weeks after the onset of
symptoms
.
As the WDR science
magazine
Quarks
reports,
more people died
in
Bavaria
and Baden-Württemberg * between March and May than in the previous period.
During this period, a particularly large number of people tested positive for
Corona
.
"A look at the number of deaths suggests that their temporary increase was related to the
pandemic
, so a
corona effect is
obvious," writes the Federal Statistical Office in a report.
Coronavirus Germany: The number of Covid-19 deaths increases significantly
From the beginning of May, the number of
deaths
was again roughly average.
In August there were again an above-average number of
deaths
.
The experts attribute this to the
hot spell
.
"We know that very old people suffer particularly from high temperatures, and accordingly have a higher probability of dying, and if we see particularly high death rates in the hottest weeks of the year, we assume that there is a connection," said zur Nieden.
With the second
corona wave
, however, increased
deaths also
returned.
According to preliminary results,
at least 78,346 people died
in
Germany
in October 2020
- four percent more than the average between 2016 and 2019. The number of
deaths
in the first half of October was still
around
the average of previous years.
"The number of deaths of people who had previously been laboratory-confirmed with
Covid-19
rose from week to week," said the Federal Statistical Office.
The number of ACTIVE # Corona cases in 🇩🇪 rose yesterday by 3,625 to 334,436 - and thus reached a record.
Change compared to
- the day before yesterday: + 1.1%
- the Wednesday of the previous week: + 11.6% @ welt pic.twitter.com/aa37poevib
- Olaf Gersemann (@OlafGersemann) December 17, 2020
In the last week of October alone, at least 19,030 people died - five percent more than in previous years.
The above-average number of
deaths
in
Germany
in October 2020 is almost exclusively due to cases in people aged 80 and over.
According to the
RKI
figures
,
deaths
from
Covid-19 are
more common among people over the age of 80.
In the week from November 9th to 15th, eight percent more people died than the average in previous years; in the previous week the difference was five percent.
There is a ray of hope: The first corona vaccinations should be available in Germany in 2020 * and a vaccination strategy has already been established *.
Coronavirus in Germany: Increase in deaths not only from Covid-19
The
experts point
out the following: “But you cannot know what
would have
happened without the
measures
.
You always have to keep that in mind if you
want to calculate
the danger of the
pandemic
with the help of the number of
deaths
, ”explains Felix zu Nieden.
In principle, increased deaths are not exclusively due to
Corona
, as
Quarks
reports.
The
corona measures taken
could also have resulted in people who had health problems not going to the doctor or hospital - and thus not receiving adequate care.
+
How deadly is Corona really?
So far, over 1.6 million people have died in connection with Covid-19 worldwide.
(Symbol image)
© Sven Hoppe / dpa / symbol image
Another thesis on
deaths
not related to
Sars-CoV-2
is based on
isolation
, which worsens the health of some so that they die earlier.
But factors such as the weather can also cause an increased
death rate
.
In the summer, the German Weather Service (DWD) published regular warnings of heat.
*
echo24.de
is part of the Ippen-Digital network
List of rubric lists: © Peter Steffen / dpa
