Thread by @phenomstruck

RIVM preprint 👇
The estimated disease burden of acute COVID-19 in the Netherlands in 2020, in disability-adjusted life-years.
(under peer-review, below are some highlights)
#epitwitter #covid19nl #rivm
assets.researchsquare.com/files/rs-10267…

Study objectives were to quantify the total disease burden of acute COVID-19 in the Netherlands in 2020 using the disability-adjusted life-years (DALY) measure, and to investigate how disease burden varies between age-groups and occupation categories.

Authors estimated:
- total years of life lost (YLL),
- years lived with disability (YLD),
- disability adjusted life years (DALY) due to COVID-19.

One DALY represents the loss of the equivalent of one year of full health.

(It combines years of life lost due to premature mortality, YLLs and years of life lost due to time lived in states of less than full health, or years of healthy life lost due to disability,YLDs.)

Results:
Total burden of acute COVID-19 in 2020 were estimated at 273,000
This means 273K years of full health lost!
43% of the disease burden among those under 30 years, was due to Years of healthy Life lost due to Disability.
43% of disease burden in youth!

The total disease burden due to acute COVID-19 in the Netherlands was overwhelmingly determined by premature mortality.
>99% of years of life lost due to Disability were due to premature deaths.
Let that sink in.

Conclusions:
SARS-CoV-2 infection and associated premature mortality was responsible for a considerable direct health burden in the Netherlands, despite extensive public health measures.
Total DALY were much higher than for other high-burden infectious diseases.

Another thing to bear in mind is that this study only looked at year 2020 and did not measure the effects of longcovid/long term health consequences of covid19 infection.
Factor those in and the already devastating numbers would be higher.