EU saw 53,000 excess deaths in July amid record heatwave: report | Hacker News Reader

EU saw 53,000 excess deaths in July amid record heatwave: report

globalnews.ca

35 pointskitkat_new20 comments

"It added the 16% rate was 'an unusually high value' for a July month. The bloc had 3% excess mortality in the same period in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and 6% in 2021."

Am I reading correctly that this implies, at least for the month of July, that heat killed more people than the pandemic?

Yes, but it is an unfortunate selection of data, as excess death due to Covid in the EU mostly happened in two waves, non of which extended to July. But I don't want to downplay the impact of heat waves, they death spike associated with them is interesting, and underappreciated by the public.

https://www.euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps

dont forget that anyone who died from the flu was tagged as covid death. just look at flu death in 2018 and during covid

Well, yes, flu doesn't propagate as much when everyone is staying in and using masks.

but covid does?

Yes, basically. It is far more contagious than flu. Even assuming it is 'just the flu' in terms of impact of a single bout on an individual (and there is plenty of evidence it is much worse than the flu), the fact that it spreads so easily and can re-infect so readily makes it a very serious public health issue.

How many of them died due to heat?

In a massice 2015 Lancet study of temperature related fatalities worldwide, they found 17 times more fatalities due to cold than heat. Even in tropical countries there were more people dying due to cold-related issues. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

The last spin in the campaign to blame excess deaths spike in the last year on anything, but that one thing they forced on everyone.

"Good" the government says, "keep reducing the energy those peasants can use", and "the winter will kill them when we turn off the gas, lmao".

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