Children’s Health: By the Numbers
Last month, a young student at Eton College died at the age of 17 years while playing games at the College fields. Unfortunately, this sad event is not an isolated incident. During the same week, a different young football player collapsed in 3 separate world football games. As a stunned commentator said, “World football, unfortunately, has been subject to so many distressing scenes on the pitch over the last few years.”
Investigations are urgently needed if we are to cultivate healthy generations by 2040. Trends and observations for children (0-14 years) reviewed in this article confirm that the health of the young population is deteriorating. Unfortunately, until now the sharp decline in children’s immune systems is not capturing the attention of experts and public health authorities.
To rescue children’s health, this needs to be viewed as an emergency. Policies for any poorly investigated drugs or vaccines with serious risks for harmful side effects could be halted until safety and effectiveness are demonstrated through analysis by independent parties.
For a healthy, balanced, and economically flourishing country, the best return on investments will be from programs aiming to support women’s health during pregnancy and children’s health.
Increased Mortality in Children 0-14 Years
The latest numbers on trends in excess mortality on Eurostat, the UK, and the US for children in the age 0-14 years as analyzed by Phinance Technologies can no longer be neglected.
Phinance Technologies estimates excess mortality by computing deathrates relative to a given baseline, rather than by changes in deaths. This significantly improves the accuracy of changes in mortality. The method 2C, as used in figures presented in this article, estimates excess death rates by computing relative to a baseline that is the continuation of a previous trend in excess deaths. The analysis aims to significantly improve accuracy on excess mortality.
Several countries analyzed over the past four years have noticed increases in excess mortality for all ages. Among them are the Netherlands, the US, the UK, and Bulgaria. These are facing a remarkable increase in excess mortality in children 0-14 years in 2021-2023. On the other hand, far less or no excess mortality in children 0-14 years is observed in countries like Sweden, Denmark, and Belgium.
