Thread by @MackayIM

The first year of COVID-19 in Australia: direct and indirect health effects

aihw.gov.au/reports/burden…

A reminder of how vaccine development has been speeding up - but scicne and medicine did especially amazingly for this pandemic. A new benchmark?

A nice reminder that while most of COVID-19 is mild and moderate, a sizable portion is not at all - from hospitals through to death.
Polio was a rare outcome from poliovirus infection - but it wasn't something anyone wanted.
Vaccines work in these severe outcomes spaces.

And that severity is of course best viewed been broken down by age group.

But infection isn't just about "it's all good" vs "DEAAATH". Hospitalisations and ICU admissions clearly *can be* spread much more obviously across age groups. And remember that small percentages (literally, 'per 100s') get bigger quickly when overall case numbers shoot up.

I like the clarity of this pathway to determining Years Lived with Disability (YLD) and Years of Life Lost (YLL).

There were a *lot* of YLL - even in Australia which manage that brilliantly. Especially among males.

These next few are for the "why are your citizens so willing to do what they're told" krew.
(Answer of course is "Why are *yours* not?". Why so willing to run towards death and disease instead of science-led, short-term pain for longer-term gain"?
Case rates-🖐NZ, SK, SG, JP🖐

Death rates 🖐NZ, SK, SG, JP🖐

Excess deaths (under the 5-year average in Australia and New Zealand (I'm looking at you and your multisystem event triggering capacity influenza)

What If...
...Australia saw the same case rates as some other countries...?
Why would we want to have been like anyone sles (except New Zealand, but that's a daily question really)

......Australia saw the same death rates as some other countries...?

What if, indeed.

Australia saw a decrease in all-cause deaths per 100,000 in 2020 (this may look different in 2021 of course)

A drop in death due to (?with) most of these selected diseases in Australia last year.

Massive drop in influenza and pneumonia deaths compared to the previous 5-years

But I don't mean to trivialise the impact of a pandemic and the responses to it. Mental Health service use trended upwards throughout 2020...

Especially wherever the pandemic was most directly impacted, and especially among the young...