UNCOVERING COVID’S HIDDEN COSTS

At first glance, statistics appear to support the common perception that COVID-19 does its worst damage among the elderly and vulnerable. But these grim numbers mask another reality—and focusing on them has biased policy decisions and individual choices.

Researchers at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics found that elderly and younger adult populations have borne a similar burden from the pandemic when measured by years of life lost. In total, over 9 million years of life were lost in the first year of the pandemic, with adults ages 25 to 64 accounting for 54% of these lost birthdays.

The analysis leveraged the Schaeffer Center’s Future Elderly Model and Future Adult Model and was published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

“The focus on older people passing away from COVID misses the substantial burden COVID has imposed on younger people with chronic conditions like obesity,” says Darius N. Lakdawalla, the Quintiles Chair in Pharmaceutical Development and Regulatory Innovation at the School of Pharmacy and a senior fellow at the Schaeffer Center. “Many people have emphasized that protections like lockdowns and vaccinations ought to focus on the old and the vulnerable. However, our findings contradict the belief that this is a pandemic primarily of the elderly.”

The investigators found that Black and Latino populations experienced a disproportionate number of life-years lost. Across all ages, men and women from Black and Latino communities lost years of life at over twice the rate of white men and women. The disparity was largest among Black men ages 25 to 64, who lost life-years at three times the rate of their white peers.