On September 14, 2021, I pointed out that anxiety and fear-related disorders loomed smack in the middle of the CDC's list of comorbidities likely to lead to more severe cases and death from Covid-19. You can read about it here. Then on August 15, 2022, I wrote about how the non-covid death rate increased in 2021. Again, you can read about it here. We were extremely worried about the rising death toll in 2020, but not in 2021, when more people than in the pandemic year died. I was distressed that nobody seemed interested in why this would be. I was on vacation then and said I would look into it to find out what was happening, and I have. Anxiety and fear-related disorders, among other things, are to blame.

I wrote about the increasing number of people dying in 2021 in this post. The trend started around 2009. Interestingly, CDC death rates increased from 2020 to 2021, except for persons aged 75 and over. In other words, the increase in death was due to younger people dying, representing the ages least likely to die from Covid-19. As I had mentioned in the August 15 post, life insurance death claims for the five largest companies were up an average of 30% for people ages 18 to 64, corroborating the CDC findings. 1

 People under the age of 45 represent 46% of the total population. While largely unharmed by Covid-19, their death rate went up 26%, while the elderly who were dying in droves from Covid-19 had an 18% increase. Three-fourths of Covid-19 deaths were among the elderly, but more than half of excess non-Covid deaths were among adults that were not elderly. 2

Diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, etc. accounted for more than 47,000 excess deaths over the expected average, representing the most significant increase of any disease in 2021. Drug overdoses and alcohol-related deaths accounted for another 24,000 excess deaths. Murder and auto accidents added another 9,000. All other conditions amounted to 18,000 additional deaths. All told, there were 97,000 excess non-covid deaths above the anticipated average.

  In July 2020, I wrote about how the obesity epidemic has been and continues to claim many more lives than Covid-19 here. Sadly, the alarming trend in increasing deaths started around 2009. From 2019 to 2020, the CDC said, fatal drug overdoses had already risen by 30%. 3  External causes of death include murder, car accidents, suicides, and drug overdoses, and all external causes of death have been steadily increasing. Casey B. Mulligan and Robert D. Arnott have a working paper in which they say that the deaths from alcohol, diabetes, obesity, and drugs alone account for 18,000 additional annual deaths year over year. They single out the ever-increasing drug-related deaths and estimate that by 2030, 200,000 people could predictably die each year from drugs alone. This alarming number would be considered normal and on-trend. 4

 There are two plausible explanations for the sudden rise in non-covid non-elderly adult deaths. The first one is that the lockdown efforts made those already heading toward self-destructive behaviors like smoking, drinking, weight gain, illicit drug use, and sedentary behaviors do more of them. Alcohol sales initially went up during the lockdowns by 34%, and cigarette sales went up by 13%. 5 

The other explanation is that the lockdowns were a direct cause that made us more isolated, depressed, sedentary, anxious, and decreased access to preventive screenings for disease. For instance, gyms were closed, and this paper determined that people gained 1.5 pounds per month during the lockdowns. 6 I suspect that trend continued apace in 2021. Cancer screenings are estimated to have decreased by as much as 94%. 7 Finally, shutting down people's ability to earn a living often led to consuming cheaper food, degraded their ability to afford medical care, hurt morale, and generally led to poorer lifestyle choices.  The person in the article below missed out on fresh air, exercise, sun and probably had undue stress from being arrested.

I suspect that the increase in non-covid deaths was a combination of both the lockdown efforts and personal choices. We have been shamefully ignoring the upward trend of non-covid deaths. I find this most distressing. 

There is one more potential cause for the uptick in non-covid deaths.

The graph at the end of this post shows the reported deaths per the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System or VAERS. I wrote about it on April 12, 2021. VAERS is a voluntary system, and a study done by Harvard in 2009 says it all. Read the excerpt below that discusses the many shortcomings of VAERS and how the data is frightfully incomplete-as much as 99%. You can read the full report here.

The image below is from VAERS. Notice the spike on the right coincides with the release of the new vaccines. Keep in mind two things: the data is for all vaccines, and the data may only represent a small fraction of the real deaths. The system for tracking adverse events is so inadequate, that nobody has attempted to use it as a definitive way to connect the new vaccines to potential harm and death.

Hopefully, the vaccines are not to blame, but the graph above is frightening. Nobody can undo their vaccines, and we can't live other people's lives for them. There will always be people who live unhealthy lives.  But we can make changes in our own lives to increase our vitality. Making a few changes in your daily routine will result in extraordinary changes. Sleeping eight hours each night, eating unprocessed whole foods, moving about each day, going outside and getting sun exposure, and socializing among close friends and relatives are free and easy to do. Rome was not built in a day. Perhaps changing just one thing at a time can make it easier. Once you get the hang of your new behavior, work on another. It may save your life.