Updated · University of Minnesota Twin Cities · May 11
UK Study Finds 28% of Older England COVID Deaths Lost 5+ Years of Life
Updated
Updated · University of Minnesota Twin Cities · May 11
UK Study Finds 28% of Older England COVID Deaths Lost 5+ Years of Life
1 articles · Updated · University of Minnesota Twin Cities · May 11
About 28% of people in England aged 65 and older who died with COVID-19 in the pandemic’s first 2.5 years would likely have lived at least five more years if uninfected, a new model-based study found.
Nearly 16 million older adults’ linked health records from March 2020 to September 2022 were analyzed, with the model adjusting for underlying illness, vaccination status and pandemic wave.
Median lost survival was estimated at 4.8 years for women and 4.4 years for men, with the biggest gap among those aged 65 to 69 and during the second wave from September 2020 to March 2021.
Only 23.5% of older COVID deaths were expected to have had less than one year left, leading researchers to argue most victims were not already close to death and that real-time mortality-displacement modeling should guide future pandemics.
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COVID-19 and Years of Life Lost: Evidence from the UK and Global Comparisons on Mortality and Health Equity
Overview
A UK government study published in May 2026 directly addressed critics who claimed that most COVID-19 deaths were among people already near the end of their lives. By analyzing comprehensive health data, the study found that many older adults who died from COVID-19 would have otherwise lived for many more years. This challenges the idea that pandemic control measures were not justified and shows that the pandemic caused a significant loss of potential life years, even among the elderly. The findings refute the notion that COVID-19 deaths were only among those with minimal remaining life expectancy.