"Cause Unknown": The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021 & 2022

by Ed Dowd

By 2017, around 2.8 million Americans died. 2018 was about the same again. 2019, about the same again. Not surprisingly, 2020 saw a spike, smaller than you might imagine, some of which could be attributed to COVID and to initial treatment strategies that were not effective. But then, in 2021, the stats people expected went off the rails. The CEO of the OneAmerica insurance company publicly disclosed that during the third and fourth quarters of 2021, death in people of working age (18-64) was 40% higher than it was before the pandemic. Significantly, the majority of the deaths were not attributed to COVID. Confirm: https://delivr.com/2fnf9 A 40% increase in deaths is literally earth-shaking, and not only for the devastated families and communities that directly experience the deaths. Even a 10% increase in excess deaths would have been a 1-in-200-year event. But this was 40%. And therein lies a story – a story that starts with obvious questions: What has caused this historic spike in deaths among younger people? What has caused the shift from old people, who are expected to die, to younger people, who are expected to keep living? It isn’t COVID, of course, because we know that COVID is not a significant cause of death in young people. Various stakeholders will opine about what could be causing this epidemic of unexpected sudden deaths. Though I’ll share my best conclusions, I aim most of all to help you reach your own conclusions. In the coming pages, I won’t ever ask you t...