Life expectancy for Canadians decreased for the third straight year in 2022, and more people died of COVID-19 than in any other year since the pandemic began, according to a report released Monday.

OTTAWA - Life expectancy for Canadians decreased for the third straight year in 2022, and more people died of COVID-19 than in any other year since the pandemic began, according to a report released Monday.

Statistics Canada’s analysis of deaths(opens in a new tab) last year shows the average Canadian’s life expectancy dropped to 81.3 years in 2022, a full year lower than the 82.3 years recorded in 2019.

COVID-19 became the third-leading cause of death for Canadians last year, overtaking accidents and unintentional injuries for the first time since the disease emerged in 2020.

“This increase may in part be due to the exposure to new highly transmissible COVID-19 variants and the gradual return to normalcy,” the report said, pointing to reduced restrictions and the elimination of masking requirements.

Cancer and heart disease were the first and second most common causes of mortality, accounting for 41.8 per cent of all deaths in 2022.

Mortality debt from the lockdowns.

  • TupamarosShakur [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    1 year ago

    Yeah, is it possible our let it rip strategy just killed off the most vulnerable people in the US, whereas Australia and Canada had more protections in place (not sure about Canada but I know Australia did at least in the first year - also I can’t imagine Canada had less protections than the US) that now that they’ve moved closer to the US “let it rip” strategy they’re seeing more deaths, whereas we just decided to go let it rip from the start pretty much?

    Also I was reading yesterday that there’s no standardized way to categorize leading causes of death. Maybe this has something to do with it? Not sure how U.S. statistics compare with Australian and Canadian statistics in that regard though so maybe not.

    I am interested to see what happens to the other leading causes of death, since covid can make them all worse.

    This is definitely what’s being ignored in the data, even for Canada. Heart diseases are in the top two leading causes of death for all Australia, Canada and the U.S. We know Covid can cause heart disease, and the risk remains high for months after an infection. I don’t believe there’s really any way to prove Covid caused heart disease in terms of biomarkers or anything, but that possibility that not only is covid one of the top leading causes of death, but also it’s contributing to many of the other leading causes of death seems to be ignored by all the data, unsurprisingly.