The World Health Organization (WHO) published a study this weekend finding that global life expectancy fell dramatically to 2012 levels shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began.
annual World Health Statistics report, Published The statement, released Friday, came ahead of the World Health Assembly (WHA), an annual meeting of the U.N. body that began Monday in Geneva. The WHO brings together member states to address worrying health trends around the world, revise or improve international law on public health and discuss ways to prevent future emergencies. Much of the energy around this 2024 event has been focused on negotiating a treaty or other international legal instrument that would govern the global response to pandemics, a controversial idea that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has vigorously campaigned on. 2021 and beyond.
A panoramic view of the opening session of the 77th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland on May 27, 2024 (Photo by Muhammet Ikbal Arslan/Anadolu via Getty Images).
The working group, which has been working for years to draft the pandemic pact, has failed to agree on a full draft to present to this year’s World Health Assembly but is due to release a summary of its conclusions on Tuesday.
In addition to directly addressing future pandemics, WHA participants will also address worrying trends in public health in the aftermath of a pandemic, particularly declining life expectancy.
“In just two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed more than a decade of gains in both life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy (HALE),” this year’s World Health Statistics states. report “By 2020, global life expectancy and HALE had both fallen to their 2016 levels (72.5 and 62.8 years, respectively). The following year they declined further, both returning to their 2012 levels (71.4 and 61.9 years, respectively).”
The biggest declines in life expectancy were seen in the Americas and Southeast Asia, where life expectancy fell “by about three years.”
This decline follows what the report calls a “steady increase” in life expectancy between 2000 and 2019. Global life expectancy increased from an average of 66.8 years in 2000 to 73.1 years in 2019.
“The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has set both life expectancy and healthy life expectancy back to levels seen a decade ago, but has affected people unevenly across regions and income groups,” Tedros said in the report’s foreword. “This setback and the resulting inequalities signal significant challenges for health systems that require urgent responses and action.”
“The pandemic has erased nearly a decade of progress towards improving life expectancy in just two years,” the WHO lamented in its report summary, saying the change was directly attributable to the sudden onset of the pandemic.
The annual report does not mention any government measures taken during the pandemic as potential contributing factors to the worsening health situation, apart from SARS-CoV-2 infection itself. The report does not mention “lockdowns” by name, or concerns such as the forced detention of people in quarantine camps in China, Australia, etc. I do not go To avoid coronavirus infection, people should attend clinics during the peak of the pandemic for preventive healthcare, which is crucial to saving lives from many non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, cancer and heart diseases.
Women and children wearing masks wait in a makeshift treatment area outside the Caritas Medical Center in Hong Kong, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. Hong Kong authorities say hospital capacity hit 90% on Thursday and isolation facilities are at capacity as the city struggles to adhere to China’s “zero tolerance” strategy and stamp out record numbers of COVID-19 cases (Kin Chun/The Associated Press).
The study noted that NCDs remain a major challenge during the pandemic and “were previously the leading cause of death”.
“Even amid the pandemic, 78% of non-COVID-related deaths were due to NCDs,” the report noted.
The WHO also released new statistics on suicide, revealing that the Americas was the only region to experience an increase in suicides between 2000 and 2021.
Tedros used the findings to push ahead with the pandemic pact, which has yet to be completed.
“In just two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out 10 years of gains in life expectancy, which is why the new pandemic agreement is so important,” Tedros said. Said “This will not only strengthen global health security, but also protect long-term investments in health and promote equity within and among countries,” he said in a statement after the report’s release.
Previous WHO reports have suggested that pandemic-related lockdowns have had a negative impact on some health indicators: a 2022 report, for example, found that anxiety and depression increased by 25 percent globally in 2020.
“For example, the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic have had a significant impact on the mental health of many people, including stress, anxiety and depression resulting from social isolation, isolation and uncertainty about the future,” WHO claimed at the time.
The agency also noted that child abuse was a major factor in poor mental health, saying: “For some children and adolescents, being forced to remain confined to their homes is likely to increase their risk of family stress and abuse, which are known risk factors for mental health problems.”
Child Abuse (Getty/Stock Photo)
The WHO also released a report in 2022 revealing that lack of physical activity is costing the world up to $27 billion in unnecessary medical costs for people suffering from obesity and other related problems.
” [coronavirus] “The pandemic has shown that physical activity must be a core element of public policy and all countries must ensure that equitable physical activity opportunities are provided for all,” the agency declared in its report, ignoring widespread closures of parks, gyms, beaches, playgrounds and other places commonly used for physical activity.
