PING
I’ve read this kind of research before but I’m not 100% convinced. The people alive in 2016 are 5-6 years older now. On the flip side, they survived covid too. So who knows?
Excess mortality is also a way to gauge whether covid was really a problem and if I recall correctly, there was not a noticeable excess mortality rate in 2020. A lot of deaths in nursing homes (where it probably was in excess of norms) but overall?
It is also possible that the vaccines are giving frail people a false sense of security and they put themselves at greater risk.
Lots of other variables to consider.