While regular readers of this space are more than aware of the severity of the coronavirus pandemic, we continue to uncover new aspects of the pandemic’s impact as more data from the past three years comes to light.
The coronavirus pandemic caused the death rate in New York City in calendar year 2020 to climb approximately50% over the previous year, according to new data released by the city’s Department of Health.
This phenomenon was something that had not been observed in almost 200 years.
Indeed, one has to go back to 1834, when cholera struck and smallpox was resurgent to find an earlier instance of when the death rate over the prior year climbed roughly 50%.
To make matters worse, the health department data shows that , life expectancy fell across the Big Apple from 82.6 years in 2019 to 78 years in 2020, a year-over-year decline of 4.6 years.
There is a wonderful if not somewhat frightening chart produced by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene entitled “The Conquest of Pestilence in New York City” (reproduced above) that shows the death rate per thousand members of the population from the year 1800 through 2017. Along the timeline, it not only notes the various outbreaks of disease – including yellow fever, smallpox, cholera, and influenza, but cross-references such achievements as the establishment of the Croton Aqueduct which brought fresh water to the city, the control of typhoid carriers, and the pasteurization of milk.
Unfortunately, the chart has not as of yet been updated for the coronavirus pandemic era but I can well imagine how it will appear when that happens.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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