Covid, in Italy more deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants than in the rest of the world – Corriere.it

According to data from the university, considered one of the most reliable sources of data since the beginning of the pandemic, deaths from coronavirus amounted to 1,674,840 worldwide. In absolute terms, the United States ranks first with 313,588, followed by Brazil with 185,650 and India with 145,136. Across Europe, deaths exceed 500,000, 67,894 in Italy alone.

During the press conference to present the Christmas decree, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte responded to a question that focused on the high death toll in Italy. The dead remain an open wound for years to come, he said, before pointing out some of the causes behind this finding: Deaths, he explained, depend on many factors. We have a very old population, the second in the world after Japan. Statistics say that death affects people with comorbidities. And it also depends on the lifestyles. With scientists we are studying the answers, but here politics stops and leaves space for science.

As reported by the Istituto Superiore di Sanit, in its report on deaths in Italy (updated to December 9, 2020), the average age of patients who died and tested positive for Sars-CoV-2 80 years (the mean age 82), more than 30 years older than the patients who contracted the infection. When analyzing the data of 5,838 deaths, for which it was possible to analyze the medical records, the Istituto Superiore di Sanit found that the average number of pathologies observed in patients who died of Covid was 3.6: 182 patients (3.1% of the sample ) had no other pathologies, 724 (12.4%) had one pathology, 1077 (18.4%) had 2, and 3,855 (66.0%) had 3 or more.

As explained here, the high average age cannot explain, by itself, why there are so many deaths relative to the population in Italy. Marco Imarisio spoke a few days ago about the disaster of basic medicine and quoted Roberto Bernabei, one of the most important local geriatricians: During the 2003 heat wave there was a massacre of the elderly with the same pathologies that make Covid-19 lethal. “Even then something terrible happened: whoever had good and continuous home care did it. Those who didn’t have it, died. Much was said, nothing changes. ” Not only that: ISPI suggests a comparison with those who had everything wrong and today are doing better than us, such as the United Kingdom: in March, Italy tightened the measures six days before the United Kingdom, that the viral circulation came last. The national average of deaths at the time of the respective closures was 59 deaths per day for us, 140 for the UK. At the end of the first wave, we had a peak of 800 daily deaths, theirs 920, an average duration longer than ours. In contrast, in October, for London and its environs, the new restrictions were activated when 120 deaths were recorded every 24 hours. Ten days before Italy, which adopted the system of “zones”, when we now count 350 deaths a day. With the same progression of the infection, today the British curve is lower than ours, a daily average of 460 missing compared to our 740. Carlo La Vecchia, professor of epidemiology at the State University of Milan, estimates the time lost at twenty days. “From October 10 to 30, all the indices suggested that we should act, but we had to wait for the Dpcm on November 4. October was like February during the first wave. The same signs. We didn’t know it then, we didn’t understand it. This time we knew that acting immediately was essential ”.