Surprise! Old people die more often than younger ones - flu, cancer, car crashes, hear disease, and corona virus

Several times in the past I have put up information about what causes death in the United States (see here and here).

First, here's the latest info from the CDC about the COVID 19:

Second, from here, odds, by age, of corona virus death:

Want more interesting age - related info? What about a correlation between age and death in car crashes? From here:

This Research Brief provides updated statistics on rates of crashes, injuries and death per mile driven in relation to driver age based on the most recent data available, from 2014-2015. Drivers ages 16-17 continue to have the highest rates of crash involvement, injuries to themselves and others and deaths of others in crashes in which they are involved. Drivers age 80 and older have the highest rates of driver deaths. Drivers ages 60-69 were the safest drivers by most measures examined.

What about cancer? From here:

Heart Disease? From here:

About 82 percent of people who die of coronary heart disease are 65 or older. At older ages, women who have heart attacks are more likely than men to die from them within a few weeks.

Flu? From here:

It has been recognized for many years that people 65 years and older are at high risk of developing serious complications from flu compared with young, healthy adults. This is in part because human immune defenses become weaker with increasing age. While flu seasons can vary in severity, during most seasons, people 65 years and older bear the greatest burden of severe flu disease. In recent years, for example, it’s estimated that between about 70 percent and 85 percent of seasonal flu-related deaths have occurred in people 65 years and older, and between 50 percent and 70 percent of seasonal flu-related hospitalizations have occurred among people in this age group. So, influenza is often quite serious for people 65 and older.

More:

Hmmm. Had your flu shot? By the way, 70% of 55,000 = 38,500.


Generally,

Number of deaths of persons age 65 and over: 2,067,404
Deaths per 100,000 population:
65-74: 1,790.9
75-84: 4,472.6
85 and over: 13,573.6
Source: Deaths: Final Data for 2017, tables 6, 7 (pdf)]

So, what's the point? It's tough being old, especially if you have done things in life that screw up your respiratory system, or are otherwise in an "at risk" population (diabetic, obese, etc).

Right now I would be more concerned about getting the flu or driving a car.

Ultimately, of course, getting old eventually is 100% fatal.

Unsafe Places U.S. Cities with Highest Murder Rates Per Capita

So, I was reading that New Orleans has recorded its 113th murder in 2016, as set out here. That got me to thinking about whether that was a high number given that city's population.

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That sent me off to looking for data on per capita murder rates for U.S. cities, which I found neighborscouts.com, which has a convenient list of the top 30 cities in terms of murder rates per capita (as opposed to just a raw number).

New Orleans is on that list, in 7th place (39 per 100,000), behind such lovely spots as East St. Louis, IL (#1), Chester, PA (#2), St. Louis, MO (#3), Gary, IN (#4), Detroit, MI #5), Camden, NJ (#6).

A surprise to me was Rocky Mount, NC at #17 with 16 murders in its 56,535 population, or roughly 28/100,000.

East St Louis's rate is about 100/100,000. The national average is 4 per 100,000.

Chicago hit 500 homicides over the Labor Day weekend for 2016 for a projected rate of 24.1 per 100,000 citizens. Interesting dive into Chicago homicides here.

NYC has a 2016 projected rate of 3.8/100,000.

Why the higher murder rates? Gangs, drugs, lack of jobs? Culture?

According to this, the U.S. "intentional murder" rate puts it at #108 in the world, which is better than 110 other countries, including Jamaica, Russia, Costa Rica, Cuba, and the deadly Honduras.

The relevance to national security? It's the societies that are formed in areas in which law enforcement is subverted by enforcement of other codes of behavior that based in groups that are outside of the mainstream culture and which act to protect turf or to induct new members or punish "disloyal" members - enforcing their own "laws" by murder and intimidation that can pose a threat to the larger culture. I don't know who is in charge in East St. Louis, but I doubt it's the police.

UPDATE: Foreign Affairs covers the the world in The End of Homicide:

The world has never been safer than it is right now. Most forms of violence have dropped precipitously over the past few centuries. Although conflict deaths recently spiked (the war in Syria accounts for one third of all war-related killings today), fewer people are dying from warfare than at virtually any time in human history. Terrorist violence also increased over the past two years—especially in six countries the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia—but it still pales in comparison to rates in the 1960s and 1970s. Most impressive of all, homicidal violence is in steady retreat almost everywhere, especially the West.

The lethal violence that persists is unevenly concentrated. Almost half of the roughly 430,000 annual murders around the world are generated by just 25 countries. A handful of states in Latin America—Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela—account for one quarter of all homicides on the planet. As many as 47 of the 50 cities with the highest murder rates are located there.

Unaccounted for is a criminal enterprise like North Korea - which may have a low homicide rate, but is hell on its citizens.

Things That Might Kill You: Piece of Asteroid Hits Rural Nicaragua, Sadly Missing ISIS Leader.

Piece of Asteroid Hits Nicaragua

. . . [A]stronomer Dr Heather Couper explained that although more investigation is needed it does appear the meteorite came from the larger 2014 RC asteroid: "A bit must have dropped off."

"These impacts happen about once a year, so we do have to be on our toes," she added.

So, I guess you all will be building large and strong trampolines over your houses to bounce one of things back into space?

The good news is that the main body of the asteroid (which was first detected last week) did safely fly by the earth.

Now, why can't one of these things land on - say - the ISIS leader, smashing him into microscopic fragments?

You can select your own preferred target.

Just saying.

The odds of a asteroid killing you are confusingly reported as being somewhere between 1 in 250,000 (here) and the slightly higher 1 in 74,817,414 (here). So, not impossible, then. More likely then winning the big pot in the Mega Millions Lottery, in fact (see here ("5 numbers and the Mega Ball: 1 in 258,890,850").

That's comforting.

At least you don't have to spend a dollar to attempt to win the asteroid strike!

Disaster Prep Wednesday: Things that will kill you

The Federal Center for Disease Control keeps track of how Americans die and from what causes, including Ten Leading Causes of Death and Injury. Among their charts and graphs is one titled, "Causes of Injury Death: Highlighting Unintentional Injury:"

Let's just look at the top two causes of death across all age groups -

Those blue boxes are death related to motor vehicles, which are, as you can see, the #1 or #2 cause of death for all age groups except the under 1 year category. "Unintended poisoning" (green boxes) is #1 or #2 in 5 of the age groups and is discussed by the CDC here:

Deaths from drug overdose have been rising steadily over the past two decades and have become the leading cause of injury death in the United States. Every day in the United States, 105 people die as a result of drug overdose, and another 6,748 are treated in emergency departments (ED) for the misuse or abuse of drugs. Nearly 9 out of 10 poisoning deaths are caused by drugs.

As for those motor vehicle deaths, alcohol plays a big role:

Teen drivers have a relatively higher death rate in motor vehicles:

- Teens are more likely than older drivers to underestimate dangerous situations or not be able to recognize hazardous situations.
- Teens are more likely than older drivers to speed and allow shorter headways (the distance from the front of one vehicle to the front of the next). The presence of male teenage passengers increases the likelihood of this risky driving behavior.
- Among male drivers between 15 and 20 years of age who were involved in fatal crashes in 2010, 39% were speeding at the time of the crash and 25% had been drinking.
- Compared with other age groups, teens have the lowest rate of seat belt use. In 2011, only 54% of high school students reported they always wear seat belts when riding with someone else.

Inexperience at driving coupled with inexperience at drinking can be deadly. Showing off weighs in, too.

So, why is this relevant to "disaster prep?"

Just a reminder that things you take for granted - like driving - can be hazardous,  especially as summer comes and that road trip beckons. Use your seat belts and make sure everyone in the car is buckled in. Don't drink and drive. You have to live to survive disasters.