Coronamonomania Lives Forever, Part 214

There are a couple of idiots on twitter, basically VSNs, who go ballistic every time I point out that to the extent there are excess deaths beyond those caused by CV-19, they are likely due to missed care.  This is pretty obvious to me, partly because there is a long line of health care research regarding avoidable mortality and morbidity in regard to what are referred to as ambulatory care sensitive conditions, usually chronic diseases, that if regularly attended to avoid acute exacerbations.  In some cases, early hospitalization can be a reflection of good primary care, as it may avoid an emergency admission later.  This study from Japan finds that compared to a pre-epidemic period, during the first year of the epidemic, there were fewer hospitalizations for these conditions and more deaths.   The authors interpret this as a reflection of the disruption in continuity of care for these common health conditions.   (JAMA Article)

And here is an article from the British Heart Foundation discussion heart disease deaths in the UK during the epidemic.  During the period up to June 2023, around 100,000 excess deaths involving heart disease are said to have occurred in the UK.  Some of these are actually likely linked to CV-19, as that disease, along with most other serious infectious diseases, can have a lasting deleterious effect on overall health.   In the first year of the epidemic, excess heart disease deaths and excess CV-19 deaths appear to be strongly linked, that is most excess heart disease deaths also had CV-19 on the death certificate.  In the second year this association began to weaken and by the third year it was largely gone, that is almost all excess heart disease deaths had no direct association with CV-19.  The report attributes the ongoing excess cardiac deaths as likely due to missed primary care and to longer wait times for various procedures, and for delays in ambulance arrivals at homes of heart attack and stroke victims.   (BHF Article)

But here is another reminder that for young people, especially males, the vax may lead to heart inflammation.  This is a recent meta-analysis of 15 studies finding that for adolescents aged 12 to 17, there were around 40 reported cases per million doses given, which is slightly above the background rate, and that males have about six times the risk of females.  The rates were lower than those seen after other vaccinations and were also lower than existed following CV-19 infection.  (Vaccine Study)

There will be research like this for years.  It will stop getting much prominence soon because our fearful leaders won’t want us to remember the damage their policies did.  But we all should keep it firmly in mind.  Children and adolescents were particularly affected by lockdowns, school closures, etc.  Girls experienced a sharp rise in eating disorders during the epidemic and in episodes of self harm.  The rates were over 40% above those expected from past years.  These stories are particularly tragic not just because they involve young people, but because the young had zero risk from CV-19.  (BBC Story)

More of the same, from Asia, incidence of self-harm visits to ERs were up over 40% during the epidemic.  (SSRN Study)