chrisd
Major Champion
This sort of statistic is a bit unhelpful. Everyone dies of something, eventually. If all other causes of death were eliminated, everyone would die of the one that was left. The genesis of cancer is complicated, but it takes place over years and is usually not preventable in a straightforward way, a few risks such as smoking and sunbathing aside. Cancer and neurodegenerative conditions such as AD are, in a way, versions of the body's ability to regenerate itself failing. The flu and pneumonia cases are most probably in the same bucket, end of life exits rather than unexpected sudden illnesses.
So this graphic is essentially saying, so long as people still die, what is the point of trying to prevent Covid deaths? The answer is that Covid deaths are preventable. Cancer, AD and IHD are, in the same sense, not. Neither do cancer, AD and IHD spread from person to person. Cover does. Finally, death rates from cancer are falling. That doesn't mean that fewer people are dying of it, in fact more are, but they are dying later in life, so in terms of age-sex rates, these rates are falling at every age.
Also, that Covid number can change fast. It is wrong to see Covid as a public health issue on a par with accidents at home.
True !
I've been told that if my prostate cancer doesnt get any worse by the time I reach my 80's then they will not operate - effectively everyone dies of something, it may be the cancer but I guess it could also be bring knocked down by a bus or a head injury' on a forum meet, from an errant tee shot??
