Mortality data of the past four years show a wave of deadly cardiovascular and metabolic illness.

From 2020 to 2022, a quarter of a million more Americans over 35 years old succumbed to cardiovascular disease than predicted based on historical trends, according to Bloomberg analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2023, age-adjusted stroke mortality was almost 5% above pre-pandemic levels, according to preliminary data, while rates from deaths related to hypertensive heart disease, rhythm abnormalities, blood clots, diabetes and kidney failure were 15-28% higher. Covid had a muted impact on other common causes of death such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, the data show.

“The cardiometabolic aftereffects of SARS-CoV-2 have been profound, persistent, and peculiar — really peculiar,” said cardiologist Susan Cheng, director of public health research at Cedars-Sinai’s Smidt Heart Institute in Los Angeles.

frothingfash vaxxed?

Greater immunity and the emergence of less severe variants have since lowered the incidence of deadly complications, but the problem hasn’t gone away. Each coronavirus infection a person experiences, no matter how mild, might be acting like its own cardiovascular risk factor, she said. The longer-term effects are even more mysterious.

Doctors in the article are puzzled about if the cause is because Americans are too fat, or "the lockdowns" (not the hospitals being flooded with sick people for months at a time) caused people to avoid doctors, while noting that the healthcare system itself broke down and has made it harder for people to find care in the first place ever since. Could it be that these "less severe" variants are still causing heart problems? Gosh, maybe, but it's just a big ol' puzzle and no one can be sure of anything yet.

reddit-logo threads on this article are full of people describing the new heart conditions they developed after getting covid.

  • JoeByeThen [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    4 months ago

    Such concerns highlight Covid’s broad and enduring consequences that doctors, researchers, and demographers are struggling to fathom. Difficulty teasing out the multiple drivers of the excess deaths in the pandemic era makes it challenging to anticipate if and when mortality might resume a more normal pattern. This is frustrating efforts to calculate how many people are likely to die each year.

    The grim statistic is crucial in projecting population growth and making appropriate plans for everything from road-building to pensions. It also sets a baseline for measuring excess mortality needed to quantify the impact of flu and other diseases and to identify priority areas for preventative public health programs.

    “It’s a challenge because we’re not sure what the new normal is,” the CDC’s Anderson said. “I’m not sure that we can really get a good handle on this for another year or two.”

    So much for back to normal. thinkin-lenin

    • TheModerateTankie [any]
      ·
      4 months ago

      The new normal: like the old normal but now with 10% more death and disease.