All through history old men have ‘escaped’ fighting wars but NOT with COVID-19
With various politicians, media and doctors coming out and declaring the COVID-19 a pandemic and a WAR that must to be fought on all fronts one is inclined to think of the words of Herbert Hoover, who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933; “Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.”
History bears us out that the young men have all born the brunt of loss of lives in fighting wars – the average age of people who have succumbed during the wars range from 27 years-old in WWI, 25.1 years old in WWII and 23.11 years-old in the Vietnam War.
The Spanish Flu also saw it’s higher share of deaths from younger persons: Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 years old, and 65 years and older.
The Swine Flu epidemic of 2009 saw, in the U.S., the average age of people who died between April and July of 2009 at 40 years-old.
Ebola death rates hit younger children higher than any other age group.
The average US death rate from HIV/Aids ranges from 35.2 to 50.8 years-old – depending on sex and year.
The overwhelming majority of deaths from Coronavirus have hit the OLDER male population.
The cynic in me is then wont to ask:
“Could it be that we have these extensive lockdowns and extreme measures because the OLD MEN that run our countries are running scared as they realise that we are fighting a WAR that involves the OLD MEN in the fighting and dying as well?”
Read on for some facts and figures about the various mass killing episodes we have experienced in World History.
As at Tuesday 7 April 2020
Fatality rates by age: 80+ years old – 21.9%, 70-79 years old – 8.0%, 60-69 years old – 3.6%, 50-59 years old – 1.3%
Fatality rates by sex: Males – 4.7%, Females – 2.8%
Fatality rates by pre-existing medical condition: Cardiovascular disease – 13.2%, Diabetes – 9.2%, Chronic respiratory disease – 8.0%, Hypertension – 6.0%, Cancer – 7.6%
Total worldwide confirmed cases – 1 350 523
74 870 deaths
285 437 recovered
Most people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment. Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more likely to develop serious illness.
Coronavirus attacks the vulnerable first and South Africa is very vulnerable with a high HIV/AIDS infection rate. Compare the World Death Rate Numbers for 2017 with South Africa’s Death Rate Numbers for 2017 to get a feel of just how vulnerable we in South Africa are.
The UK government’s scientific advisers believe that the chances of dying from a coronavirus infection are between 0.5% and 1%.
It is very difficult to give an accurate indication of the average age of death as many recruits were under-age and those died first but most people say that the average age of those killed in the British Army during WWI was 27.
19 was the official age for a British soldier to be sent overseas to serve.
A soldier’s average life expectancy while in the trenches was six weeks.
About 6,000 men were killed on daily basis during WWI.
An estimated 37.4 Million soldiers died in WWI
Britain had around 250 000 under-age soldiers foght in WWI.
For one Canadian infantry battalion, recruited in 1940 and in action from D-Day to VE Day: Average age of fatal casualty – 25.1
Estimates for the total number of casualties in the war vary because many deaths went unrecorded. Most suggest that some 75 million people died in the war, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians. Many civilians died because of deliberate genocide, massacres, mass-bombings, disease, and starvation.
About 70 million people fought in the armed forces of the Allied and Axis nations.
The Soviet Union lost the most soldiers, in excess of seven million.
It is believed that approximately six million Jewish people died in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.
Both South Africa and New Zealand lost 11 900 soldiers KIA during WWII.
The average age of death was 23.11 years old.
58 220 Soldiers were killed, 40 934 of which are confirmed as Killed in Action (KIA). 9 107 died in an accident, 5 299 died of wounds the remaining by homicide, illness, presumed dead, declared dead and self inflicted.
The number of deaths peaked in 1968 at 16 899.
Of the soldiers killed 8 were female.
The overwelming number of deaths (48 717) were from enlisted personnel.
The highest number of soldiers killed (16 817) were of the Roman Catholic Faith.
The average age of an infantryman serving in Vietnam was 22.
1918 Pandemic (H1N1 virus – Spanish Flu):
Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 years old, and 65 years and older. The high mortality in healthy people, including those in the 20-40 year age group, was a unique feature of this pandemic.
The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history.
It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin and spread worldwide during 1918-1919.
In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918.
The death toll is estimated to have been anywhere from 17 million to 50 million (less than 3% of the then global population), and possibly as high as 100 million (over 5% of the then global population), making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.
According to historian John M. Barry, the most vulnerable of all – “those most likely, of the most likely”, to die – were pregnant women.
Why was it called the ‘Spanish Flu’?: Spain was one of only a few major European countries to remain neutral during World War I. Unlike in the Allied and Central Powers nations, where wartime censors suppressed news of the flu to avoid affecting morale, the Spanish media was free to report on it in gory detail. News of the sickness first made headlines in Madrid in late-May 1918, and coverage only increased after the Spanish King Alfonso XIII came down with a nasty case a week later. Since nations undergoing a media blackout could only read in depth accounts from Spanish news sources, they naturally assumed that the country was the pandemic’s ground zero. The Spanish, meanwhile, believed the virus had spread to them from France, so they took to calling it the “French Flu.”
Based on two CDC investigations of confirmed 2009 H1N1-related deaths that occurred during the spring and fall of 2009, the average age of people in the U.S. who died from 2009 H1N1 from April to July of 2009 was 40. The median age of death for this time period was 43. From September to October of 2009, the average age of people in the U.S. who died from 2009 H1N1 was 41, and the median age was 45.
1 632 258 confirmed cases.
18 036 (lab-confirmed deaths reported to WHO – flu patients were generally not tested)
151 700 to 575 400 (CDC and WHO estimated death count)
Some studies estimated that 11 to 21 percent of the global population at the time—or around 700 million to 1.4 billion people (of a total 6.8 billion)—contracted the illness.
The Swine Flu resulted in estimates of 150 000 to 575 000 fatalities for the 2009 pandemic.
A follow-up study done in September 2010 showed that the risk of serious illness resulting from the 2009 H1N1 flu was no higher than that of the yearly seasonal flu.
The WHO estimates that 250 000 to 500 000 people die of seasonal flu annually.
The 2009 swine flu pandemic or swine flu was an influenza pandemic that lasted from January 2009 to August 2010, and the second of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus (the first being the 1918–1920 Spanish flu pandemic), albeit a new strain. First described in April 2009, the virus appeared to be a new strain of H1N1, which resulted from a previous triple reassortment of bird, swine, and human flu viruses further combined with a Eurasian pig flu virus, leading to the term “swine flu”.
The high case-fatality rate observed in children under 5 years of age and especially in those under 1 year of age suggests that young children are particularly susceptible to Ebola – consequently, low incidence in young children may reflect low exposure or low ascertainment.
The average EVD case fatality rate (from 2 387 recorded cases) is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks.
Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
The first EVD outbreaks occurred in remote villages in Central Africa, near tropical rainforests.
The 2014–2016 outbreak in West Africa was the largest Ebola outbreak since the virus was first discovered in 1976.
During 1987–2013, the average age at death from HIV disease increased steadily for both males and females. The average age at death increased 34.0% among males, from 37.9 years in 1987 to 50.8 years in 2013. Among females, the average age at death increased 41.2%, from 35.2 years in 1987 to 49.7 years in 2013.
Almost one million die from HIV/AIDS each year – in some countries it’s the leading cause of death.
Number of Deaths by Cause Worldwide – 2017:
17.79 Million – Cardiovascular Disease
9.56 Million – Cancers
3.91 Million – Respiratory Diseases
2.56 Million – Lower Respiratory infections
2.38 Million – Digestive Diseases
1.78 Million – Neonatal Disorders
1.57 Million – Diarrheal Diseases
1.37 Million – Diabetes
1.32 Million – Liver Diseases
1.24 Million – Road Diseases
1.18 Million – Tuberculosis
954 492 – HIV/AIDS
703 823 – Suicide
619 827 – Malaria
405 346 – Homicide
340 639 – Parkinson Disease
295 210 – Drowning
288 021 – Meningitis
269 997 – Nutritional Deficiencies
231 771 – Protein- energy Malnutrition
193 639 – Maternal Disorders
184 934 – Alcohol Use Disorders
166 613 – Drug Use Disorders
129 720 – Conflict
126 391 – Hepatitis
120 632 – Fire
72 371 – Poisoning
53 350 – Heat (hot and cold exposure)
26 445 – Terrorism
9 603 – Natural Disasters
Number of Deaths by Cause South Africa – 2017:
135 399 – HIV/AIDS
76 971 – Cardiovascular Disease
48 637 – Cancers
26 529 – Lower Respiratory infections
22 654 – Diabetes
19624 – Tuberculosis
18 132 – Respiratory Diseases
15 701 – Homicide
15 504 – Road Injuries
14 302 – Diarrheal Diseases
11 383 – Dementia
11 630 – Digestive Diseases
10 626 – Neonatal Disorders
9 149 – Kidney Disease
6 221 – Suicide
4 605 – Liver Disease
2 314 – Meningitis
1 928 – fire
1 841 – Nutritional Deficiencies
1 789 – Protein-energy Malnutrition
1 439 – Drowning
1 191 – Maternal Disorders
1 177 – Parkinson Disease
720 – Drug Use Disorders
682 – Alcohol Use Disorders
492 – Poisonings
403 – Heat (hot and cold exposure)
184 – Hepatitis
68 – Malaris
64 – Conflict
21 – Terrorism
14 – Natural Disasters
References:
- https://www.warhistoryonline.com/articles/40-plus-1-fascinating-facts-about-wwi.html
- https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/Killed-wounded-and-missing
- http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/average-age-of-ww2-infantry-killed-in-action.31351/
- http://www.vhfcn.org/stat.html
- https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics#age
- https://www.nationalww2museum.org/students-teachers/student-resources/research-starters/research-starters-worldwide-deaths-world-war
- https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_swine_flu_pandemic
- https://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/ages_deaths.htm
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4982163/
- https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/ebola-virus-disease
- https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6443a7.htm
- https://ourworldindata.org/hiv-aids#almost-1-million-people-die-from-hiv-aids-each-year-in-some-countries-it-s-the-leading-cause-of-death
- https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
- https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/
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