- Most of Western Europe experienced at least partial life expectancy bounce-backs in 2021
- Scale of Eastern Europe losses akin to the mortality crisis at the break-up of the Soviet Union
- Countries with higher proportions of fully vaccinated people generally experienced smaller life expectancy deficits
Using data from 29 countries in Europe, as well as Chile and the US, the researchers found life expectancy in 2021 remained lower than expected across all 29 countries, had pre-pandemic trends continued.
Previous global epidemics have seen fairly rapid ‘bounce-backs’ to life expectancy levels. But the magnitude and persistence of COVID-19’s impact on mortality has been very different from 'a bad flu'.