We verified a statement by Didier Raoult on life expectancy

• In his book

  Beyond the Chloroquine Affair

  , which has just been published, Didier Raoult writes that “the drop in life expectancy was three and a half years in 2020” in London.

• This decline does not affect all Londoners, however.

• In the United States, Hispanic men have also experienced a significant decline in their life expectancy.

What price is London paying for Covid-19?

High, according to Didier Raoult, who says in the prologue to his book

* that the British capital “has had the biggest drop in life expectancy in the world” because of the coronavirus.

The Marseille professor specifies his thoughts in chapter XII: “It is notable that the place where mortality was the most important and the drop in life expectancy the most significant is London, which was the cradle of our new civilization in 19th century, and where the drop in life expectancy was three and a half years in 2020. "Didier Raoult continues:" Of course, hydroxychloroquine was not prescribed there.

"

FAKE OFF

The figure put forward by Didier Raoult does not concern all Londoners: the drop of 3.3 years, calculated by Public Health England (an agency under the Ministry of Health), affects the most disadvantaged men.

Their life expectancy at birth fell from 77.9 years in 2019 to 74.6 years in 2020. The life expectancy at birth of the most advantaged men has decreased by a year and a half, by 84.5 to 83 years old.

On average, the life expectancy of men in England has fallen by 1.3 years for men, and nine months for women, said the British agency.

This life expectancy is valid at birth, that is to say for babies born in 2020. It is based on the assumption that the death rate remains the same throughout the life of this child. However, this figure may change, 2020 having been a year marked by the pandemic, recalls the British Bureau of Statistics. The organization stresses that "it will take several years before understanding the possible impact of the coronavirus" on life expectancy.

Do these figures make the British capital the place that has experienced "the most significant decline", as Didier Raoult writes? In the United States, male life expectancy at birth is also declining in 2020 compared to the previous year, according to calculations by the CDC, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control. Hispanic men lost the most life expectancy at birth, at 3.7 years. On average, American men lost 1.8 years of life expectancy and women, 1.2 years.

What are the factors that caused these declines?

Is it because in London, "hydroxychloroquine was not prescribed there", as the professor suggests?

A group of British researchers looked at mortality linked to Covid-19: they point out that the socio-economic conditions (housing conditions, type of work, etc.), as well as old age or certain co-morbid factors (obesity, etc.) ), increase the risk of mortality.

*

, published on October 14 by Michel Lafon editions.

World

Coronavirus: In the United Kingdom, the spread of a Delta subvariant monitored "very closely"

Media

Report information that you think is false to the "Fake Off" team of "20 Minutes"

• Fake off

• Covid 19

• Coronavirus

• Didier Raoult

• London

• Society