Mortality among young-to-middle-age Americans went through the roof last year. The majority of the increase didn’t involve the COVID-19 disease, according to official death certificate data. Deaths among people aged 18–49 increased more than 40 percent in the 12 months ending October 2021 compared to the same period in 2018–2019, before the pandemic, based on death certificate data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That means more than 90,000 additional deaths in this age group, of which less than 43 percent involved COVID. The federal agency doesn’t yet have full 2021 numbers as death certificate data usually trickles in with an 8-week lag or more. The mortality increase was most notable for the 30–39 age group, where deaths skyrocketed by nearly 45 percent with only a third involving COVID. CDC data on the exact causes of those excess deaths aren’t yet available for 2021, aside from those …