Scientific American - USA (2022-03)

March 2022, ScientificAmerican.com 59

AfricaAfrica

Western PacificWestern Pacific

SouthEast Asia

Eastern

Mediterranean

Eastern

Mediterranean

Americas

Europe

Southeast Asia

Europe

Americas
Reported Lives Lost from COVID per Week

100,000100,000 50,00050,000

March 11,

2020

Global pandemic declared by the

World Health Organization

Week starting: Dec. 30, 2019

Mar. 8, 2021

Sept. 6, 2021

Sept. 7, 2020

Spain (F) big dropNorway (F) riseFinland (F) riseDenmark (F) riseNorway (M) riseU.S. (F) big dropBulgaria (F) big dropU.S. (M) big dropBulgaria (M) big dropLithuania

(M) big drop

Denmark (M) rise

Life Expectancyat Birth for 29 Countries (years)

2015*

2019

2020

84 80 76 72

Female (F)Male (M)

Informationon nonbinarycategorieswas not published*Data forChile, Germany, and Greecefrom 2016

Superlatives (2019–2020)

World Asia AfricaLatin America and the Caribbean

Projections for the COVID-19 scenarioProjections for the no-COVID-19 scenario

656.8624 .1

418.0281.6 59.7

2016

2019

2020

2030

768.0

Number of UndernourishedIndividuals (millions) 600 400 200

0

299.5(Africa)299.3290.8283.0(Africa)52.245.4

80 76 72

Life

Expectancy

at Birth,

U.S.

(years,

all sexes)

No-COVID-19

scenario

COVID-19scenario

LatinoNon-LatinowhiteTotalpopulationNon-LatinoBlack

1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4

Jul. 2020

Nov. 2020

Estimated ChildhoodVaccine DisruptionPatterns(diphtheria-tetanus-pertussisor measles)

Baseline(no-COVID-19scenario)

Index values over1.0 indicate more doses than baseline were administered during that month. An index value of zero would indicate complete disruption of vaccine deliveryduring that month.

Nepal

Australia

Nigeria

India

U.S.

Tinted panels

represent ranges

of uncertainty

Nearly

5,412,000

COVID deathsreported to the World Health Organization as of Dec. 29, 2021

Mar. 2020

Overall life expectancy in the U.S. has plummeted, but some populations suffered more than others. The pan

demic’s

disproportionate impact on communities

of color underscores the serious

health effects of racial and

ethnic inequality. Source: “Reductions in 2020

U.S. Life Expectancy Due to COVID-19 and the Dispropor

• 
  

tionate Impact on the Black

and Latino Populations,”

by Theresa Andrasfay and Noreen Goldman, in

PNAS

,^

Vol. 118; February 2, 2021 (

data

)

HEALTH

Birth Rates

• 
  

Globally, COVID’s impact on

birth rates has been mixed. In many high-income nations, people had fewer babies than expected in 2020, perhaps because of high levels of stress and financial uncertainty. But in low- and middle-income countries, pandemic restrictions disrupted access

to contraceptives for an estimated 12 million women, resulting in nearly 1.4

million unintended pregnancies.

Loss of Caregivers

• 
  

In October 2021

the CDC reported that one in four COVID deaths in

the U.S. deprived a child of a primary or secondary caregiver. From April 2020 to June 2021, this amounted to 140,000 children affected, a dispro­portionate number of whom were kids of color.

Life Expectancy A useful measure of population health and longevity, the indicator known as “life expectancy at birth” has been on the rise in most places for the past century. In a recent study of 29 countries,

COVID single-handedly reversed that trend in

27 of them. Life expectancy is typically measured separately for males and females; overall, the pandemic’s toll was greater among males. Source: “Quantifying Impacts of the

COVID-19 Pandemic through Life-

Expectancy Losses: A Population-Level Study of 29 Countries,” by José Manuel Aburto et al., in

International Journal of Epidemiology;

September 26, 2021 (

data

)

Childhood Vaccinations Despite ubiquitous talk of vaccines, rates of immunization against diseases

other

than

COVID have recently fallen.

A^

study tracking children due for their third dose of the

diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine and their first dose of

the measles vaccine estimated that between eight

million

and nine

million more doses of each vaccine were

missed globally compared with what was expected, with coverage dipping lowest in April 2020. Numbers have improved since then, but in some countries, coverage remains lower than it would be without

COVID.

Source: “Estimating Global and Regional Disruptions to Routine Childhood Vaccine Coverage during the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020: A Modelling Study,” by^

Kate Causey et al., in

Lancet,

Vol. 398; July 14, 2021 (

data

)

Food Insecurity Factors such as climate change and pervasive inequality

were already contributing to high rates of food insecurity.

A recent report found that the pandemic caused an immediate spike in undernourishment both globally and regionally

in 2020, primarily related to people losing their jobs or experiencing a

reduction in work hours amid lockdowns.

It also compared projected numbers of undernourished

people over the next decade with what those values would be without

COVID. The data suggest that these seemingly acute

disruptions will have a long tail:

COVID scenario projections

largely exceed no-

COVID ones as far out as 2030.

Source:

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021.

“Transforming

Food Systems for Food Security Improved Nutrition and Affordable Healthy Diets for All,” by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 2021

Globally, COVID has changed people’s health in ways that go far beyond the acute impact of the disease. Efforts to limit the virus’s spread, as well as

the death toll itself, have generated widespread fear, isolation and economic hardship, the effects of which will be felt for generations.