Prime-Age Mortality Remains Elevated Even as COVID-19 Fades

Ambulances sit outside the emergency room at Washington Hospital Center in Washington on April 7, 2020. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

More Americans aged 18–49 are dying than in years before, even if COVID-19 deaths are excluded. Such excess deaths reached their peak during summer and fall last year. They’ve since subsided but still remain in the thousands each month.

As The Epoch Times previously reported, the excess deaths are likely attributable to increases in drug overdoses, alcohol-related diseases, and homicide, as well as overlooked COVID-19 deaths, delayed consequences of the disease, and possible side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Last year, approximately 96,000 more prime-age Americans died than in 2018 and 2019, adjusted for population change. Less than half of those were attributed to COVID-19 in death certificate data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This year, between January and August, there have been more than 40,000 such deaths, with less than 28 percent attributed to COVID-19.

That leaves more than 54,000 non-COVID-19 deaths in 2021 and more than 29,000 such deaths this year in the 18–49 age group.

The death certificate data is preliminary and has a lag time of eight weeks or more, according to the CDC’s website.

The surge of excess deaths last year was corroborated by data collected by life insurers.

Drug overdoses have been a major contributor to the excess deaths, with overdoses surging by more than 50 percent between 2019 and 2021. Since March, however, they’ve started to slightly decline, according to provisional CDC data.

Increases in murder and alcohol-related deaths have been factors too, though there’s a lack of timely data for those.

The CDC has generally attributed excess deaths to COVID-19 even if the death certificate doesn’t list the disease as a factor. The agency has argued that such deaths were either caused by COVID-19 and misclassified on the death certificate or caused by COVID-19 indirectly, such as when one survives the disease, but it undermines the person’s health to the point that they die of another cause.

Some experts argue that part of the excess deaths, particularly in the prime-age demographic, are caused by side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines. They point to known side effects, such as myocarditis and blood clots, as well as the tens of thousands of adverse effects reported to the CDC.

The CDC has warned against making conclusions based on the adverse effects database (VAERS) since the reports aren’t verified and don’t prove causation from vaccination.

Some researchers have pointed out, however, that it’s usually health care professionals who submit the VAERS reports and that the data provide useful safety signals that are typically underreported.