COVID-19: The pandemic recession may kill more Americans than the COVID virus will | Fortune

The economic effects of COVID-19 could prove deadlier than the disease itself.

So says just-released research, which concludes that the total lives lost to the virus in the U.S. may “far exceed those immediately related to the acute COVID-19 critical illness…The recession caused by the pandemic can jeopardize population health for the next two decades.”

Their main finding: Over the next 20 years, 1.37 million more people will die than would have died without the unemployment shock the pandemic caused, a number the researchers call “staggering.” They find also that “excess deaths will disproportionately affect African-Americans.” The implied increases in deaths per 100,000 individuals over the next 20 years are 32.6 for African-Americans versus 24.6 for white Americans. In all, about 3.2% more people would die in the U.S. over that span than would have died without the spike in joblessness.

FULL STUDY: “The Long-Term Impact of the COVID-19 Unemployment Shock on Life Expectancy and Mortality Rates”  https://www.nber.org/papers/w28304

Full Story: COVID-19: The pandemic recession may kill more Americans than the COVID virus will | Fortune