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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The covid pandemic was different than most in that the fatalities were concentrated in the elderly and people with a lot of other health problems, as opposed to something like the plague, which took people without regard to previous state of health. The plague would leave behind a smaller population whose overall health was about the same as before. But the covid pandemic can be seen to have left a surviving smaller population whose overall health is better and average age is younger.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Do check my reasoning on that last conjecture.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The CDC has a remarkable data site which illustrates what I think we are seeing. Here’s the data from the past four years:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm">https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><img border=0 width=743 height=216 style='width:7.7395in;height:2.25in' id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image004.jpg@01D73843.A712CB30"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Zooming in, notice what has been happening recently:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><img border=0 width=547 height=588 style='width:5.6979in;height:6.125in' id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image005.jpg@01D73843.A712CB30"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>As the vaccine drives the population toward herd immunity, the blue bars will go away, but the real signal catching my attention is how far below the orange (average) line are the green bars. They are below the average mortality by a huge margin for the past several weeks. We can ignore the data from about the last coupla weeks because it takes a while to get all the reports processed, but even if we ignore those, the average mortality is down.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>During the pandemic, we know there were plenty of suicides, perhaps because of despondency over a failed business. I lost a young second cousin that way. But at some point, most of those who are susceptible to suicide have done it already, leaving fewer suicidal people in the general population.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Does not this chart illustrate that covid left behind a younger healthier population?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>