Thread by @greg_travis

The most amazing thing about this is not the fact that the largest percentage of excess pandemic deaths is in the 35-44 and 25-34 year age groups

But how much the wrong "COVID is mild in children" narrative was driven by successes in mitigating COVID in the first year

Notice how there were actually NEGATIVE excess deaths in the < 1 year & 1-4 year age demographics in 2020?

Why?

Because in the first year remote schooling, mask wearing, working from home, etc. all absolutely tanked deaths in the very young from things like influenza, RSV, etc.

Indeed, in the first year deaths from COVID in children were very low

But not because, as we were told, COVID is not a risk for children

But because of the same reasons that in 2020 deaths in children from RSV, influenza, etc. were very low

Remote schooling, masks, etc.

Fast-forward to 2022, just after the Great Infection when we used contaminated school classrooms to force-infect over fifty million children with a deadly BSL-3 superpathogen

In 2022 pediatric excess death rates more than made up for the 2020 deficit

And together with the wholesale dropping of any forms of protection for the children (masks, vaccinations, ventilation, etc.) guess what?

Influenza and RSV came roaring back as well

Another amazing thing is just how much the death rates among the unvaccinated grew in 2021.

While highly vaccinated demographics like those aged 65 and older hardly moved the needle in 2021, under-vaccinated demographics from 15-44 years old saw staggering death rate increases

In sum:

* The narrative that COVID didn't affect children was driven by a false sense of its mildness due to mitigations such as online school, masking, etc. In reality there was no reason to expect COVID to be milder in children than it was (relatively) in adults

And it's not

* Once mitigations and protections were taken away from children, disease ripped through their population using schools as the primary vector of transmission.

From schools children brought the disease home to their parents, younger siblings, etc.

* The rise of excess deaths over the pandemic is concentrated not among the older population but squarely in the 25-45 year old demographic.

This demographic does not as a rule die but when they do die, now they die of COVID

* The lack of vaccination among younger demographics, particularly that crucial 25-45 year old demographic, is the primary driver of mortality

In short, it's the virus, not the vaccine, that is killing young people

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