Did Italians under 40 need Covid vaccination?

A crash helmet or body armour would have been better.

Our readers are a curious bunch. Thankfully, they do not take governments’ statements lying down.

Eugenio Florean who lives in Italy asked ISTAT (the Italian equivalent to the Office for National Statistics) what Italians of various age groups died from in recent years. The latest available data are from 2020. The 2021 data should be out by the end of the year. The delay is nothing unusual because of coding and the need to check the data. Nor is it surprising that 72,422 people of both genders died of or with Covid (whatever the attribution may mean).

What is noteworthy are the causes of death for people aged up to 40: 644 died of self-harm, 712 were killed in transport accidents, and 508 died of other accidental injuries. 162 died of Covid.