Summarised by Centrist
A recent study shows that excess death rates have remained high across 47 Western countries for three consecutive years since the onset of the COVID pandemic.
But what’s causing it? COVID, containment measures, or the vaccines themselves? It seems that nobody knows for sure.
The study published in BMJ Public Health – covering Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand – aimed to measure the effectiveness of the response to the pandemic.
Greenland was the only country with no excess deaths reported during this period.
Utilising historical death data, the study found that excess mortality continued to rise from 2020 to 2022, with the highest increases occurring in 2021. Just over three million excess deaths were counted in the countries analysed.
But researchers say more study is needed and that it is hard to prove whether excess deaths were due to COVID, containment measures, or vaccination programs. They point out several limitations in their findings. Some of the data, especially from 2022, is incomplete because it can take months or even years for deaths to be officially recorded in some countries.
They also note that data collection methods vary between countries, and their data did not include detailed information about characteristics like age or sex.
Nonetheless, they call the trend of increasing excess mortality throughout the Western world, “unprecedented.”
