Deaths in Australia Rose To 'incredibly high' 13%
The Australian government should immediately investigate the country's excessive death rate, which was 13 percent higher in 2022 than the previous year, according to an analysis by the Actuaries Institute. An additional 15,400 deaths were recorded in the first eight months of this year, with around a third of those not related to Covid.
According to Karen Cutter, a spokesperson for the institute's Covid-19 Mortality Working Group, the excessive death rate of 13 percent is incredibly high. She noted that it is not clear what is driving the increase. The average annual variation in mortality is typically around one to two percent.
Although she wasn't aware of the exact cause of the excessive death rate, she noted that it was significantly higher than the previous year's flu season. Also, the number of non-Covid-19 deaths has increased significantly. This is not clear why these deaths are happening, as there are many factors that can affect the country's mortality rate. Actuaries are data experts who are responsible for analyzing risk.
According to Ms. Cutter, mortality is a core part of the work that Actuaries do, and they often rely on assumptions related to morbidity and mortality in their products.
In Australia, the government is currently conducting an inquiry into Long Covid, but Ms. Cutter noted that the committee's terms of reference did not include an investigation into excess mortality. She said that there has been a lot of research on the subject, and new studies are constantly being published.
According to the latest data released by the Bureau of Statistics, there were 128,797 deaths in Australia from January to August this year, which is 17 percent higher than the average historical figure. This means that there were over 18,000 additional deaths.
The data released by the ABS showed that only 7727 of the deaths were attributed to Covid, and 10,944 were non-Covid excess. In August, the death rate was 12.4 percent above the historical average, which was down from 16.2 percent in July. So far in 2022, the deaths attributed to dementia are up 18.9 percent, cancer is up 6.1 percent, and ischaemic heart disease is up 3.3 percent.
An analysis by the Actuaries Institute revealed that the excess mortality rate in Australia during the first eight months of 2022 was at 13 percent, or an additional 15,400 deaths. During August, it was at 10 percent, or around 1700 deaths. Out of the 8200 deaths that were attributed to Covid, over half were from the company.
Some believe that the rise in deaths was linked to the company's vaccines, and some on social media suggested that the company's products were contributing to the increase in excess mortality. However, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) noted that there is no credible evidence supporting this claim.
According to Ms. Cutter, there is no proof that vaccines are causing the deaths that have been attributed to the company. In its most recent safety report, the agency noted that out of the 947 reports that it received, 14 of them were confirmed to be related to Covid vaccines.
She noted that even if the number of confirmed Covid deaths were higher than 900, this would only account for a fraction of the total deaths.