10.4% deaths of the year 2020 were attributable to Covid-19, that’s 69,000, and that makes the virus the third leading cause of death on French territory. At the same time, the other major causes of death have fallen, which is perfectly explained by the epidemic. The Department of Research, Studies and Statistical Evaluation (DREES) publishes the effects of Covid-19 on mortality during the first year, before the vaccine arrives.
The first two causes are tumors (25.6%) and cardiovascular diseases (20.2%), for the year 2020. The rates are lower than for the 2015-2017 segment, because more than half of people who died of Covid-19 were over 85, and the DREES notes that “some people who would have died within the year due to these illnesses may have died from SARS-CoV-2 infection instead“.
Fewer accidents, fewer other infectious diseases
It is partly for this reason that the excess mortality for 2020 is not as high as one might have thought. It is not equal to the number of deaths from Covid-19, because some of the people who died from it would have died of something else if we are to believe the statistics: it is only 47. 000. Other factors: health prevention, which has avoided many other potentially fatal infections, or the fact that we traveled much less, transport-related deaths have also decreased.
Deaths from Covid-19 include as many men as women, the report says. That said, “men have, at a comparable age, a mortality rate twice that of women”. This is not specific to the virus, but “concerns most causes of death. It is nevertheless slightly more marked for Covid-19”, notes the Drees.
Source: Drees press release, December 13, 2022.
