The UK government faces renewed demands for an investigation as the number of non-COVID-19 related deaths, particularly among younger age groups, remains higher than usual in England and Wales over the past three months.
according to latest data The Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced on Tuesday that there were 950 excess deaths in England and Wales in the week ending 12 August, of which 592 had COVID-19 on their death certificates. I was.
The previous week saw 1,350 deaths, 723 of which were linked to COVID-19. This trend has persisted for most weeks since May.
Official statistics show excess deaths in private homes are on the rise, and some of the excess deaths were linked to cardiovascular diseases such as diabetes and heart attacks.
ONS calculates excess deaths by comparing the number of deaths in a given week to the average number of deaths in the same week over the past five years. However, due to the high number of COVID-19-related deaths in 2020, this year’s numbers were compared to the five-year averages of 2016-2019 and 2021.
Data for the first 11 weeks of the year show below average mortality. This was expected because people may have died earlier than expected due to the pandemic, but his first eight-week data are still skewed due to his high number of COVID-19 cases. was Related deaths in those weeks in 2021.
The Epoch Times spoke to statistician Jamie Jenkins and diagnostic pathologist Claire Craig, both of whom asked to investigate trends.
Jenkins, former head of health and labor market analytics for the ONS, said excessive mortality was caused by “a variety of factors, including overuse of medical and care resources, increased diabetes during the pandemic, or delayed diagnosis due to causes.” Factors” may have caused it. Pandemic.
Of “record attendance” in the Accident and Emergency Department (A&E) as people struggle to get GP appointments, Jenkins said: There are caregivers in the community who care. And the government laid off many care workers last year because they chose not to get the COVID vaccine.
“Patients cannot enter the emergency room, so ambulances are waiting outside. Ambulances cannot pick up new patients who are urgent and may be dying.”
Jenkins also said that an aging population may explain about a quarter of excess deaths, but that there are more excess deaths than expected, particularly in some younger age groups. thinking. Happening. “
When comparing the first 31 weeks of 2022 to the five-year averages before the pandemic, mortality among 10-14 year olds is about 12% higher, and mortality among 30-44 year olds is 11% higher and 12% higher. . According to Jenkins, deaths among those aged 35 to 39 are on the rise.
Jenkins said blog It is possible that the reason for the increased number of deaths in 10- to 14-year-olds was simply due to increased cohort size, but this hypothesis cannot be confirmed until new population estimates become available.
While much attention was focused on COVID-19 cases and deaths during the pandemic, “these excess deaths were barely mentioned,” Jenkins told the Epoch Times. He argued that it was important to understand “all these fatalities.” We need to let them learn the lessons of what happened in the past so they don’t make mistakes in the future. “
Asked what information the investigation should look for, Jenkins said a closer look at the death certificate would help. This is “very helpful in understanding what’s going on, especially in these younger age groups”.
For more than a year, the Health Advisory and Recovery Team (HART), a group of experts skeptical of policies and guidance related to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been calling for research into excess mortality among young people. .
“Since the fall of 2020, we know that there has been an excess of unexplained deaths among young people, surpassing deaths from COVID,” HART spokesperson Craig told The Epoch Times.
Diagnostic pathologists said lockdowns, job insecurity and anxiety have caused “high levels of psychological stress” that may have caused excess deaths in the fall of 2020 and beyond. disease. “She also said that people not going to the doctor during the pandemic could also be a factor.
“But what we’ve seen recently is a spike in numbers,” she said, adding that people “expect there is a temporal relationship between cause and effect,” but the current The trend “looks disproportionate compared to others”. We’ve seen it before.
Over the past two years, COVID-19-related and non-COVID-19-related excess deaths have been highly correlated with each other, whereas the number of non-COVID-19-related excess deaths has been consistently higher over the past three years. Moon.
“It’s a bit tricky because we don’t know the expected number of deaths, especially after a period of very high mortality,” Greig said of the cause of the spike.
Part of the cause may be the delay in statistics. Others may have “died when they shouldn’t have”.
She added that there is “clear concern” that there may be deaths related to the COVID-19 vaccine, which is known to be associated with adverse effects such as myocarditis and pericarditis.
“I think there are many reasons why you might want to look into it.
She also said that COVID-19 may be currently underdiagnosed after mass vaccination. This means that COVID-19 may have caused someone’s death, but because the individual was not tested, the illness was not listed on the death certificate.
Greig also stressed that it was important to look at the data by age, as the problem is seen in “middle-aged people.”
When HART first called for an investigation, it was “especially men aged 15 to 19,” Craig said, and the final available causes of death were “helpful,” but the key was vaccination. He added that knowing the percentage of And when they vaccinated.
“What we want to look at is whether there is a relationship between the timing of vaccination and death, because if death is random, there happens to be a small proportion close to the vaccine. But if [the] Fatalities are vaccine-related, so there are disproportionate numbers shortly after. “
In an email to the Epoch Times, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said:
“The latest data underscore the importance of proactively managing risks related to heart disease, as there is ample evidence that many of these deaths are potentially preventable.
“These statistics are part of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ regular oversight activities and are regularly discussed within the Department of Health and Human Services and among senior NHS leaders.”
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Lily Zhou is an Ireland-based reporter focusing on UK news. Lily said she attended the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times for the first time before she focused on the UK in 2020. Please contact [email protected]