Scientists acknowledge COVID vaccines and containment protocols may have boosted excess mortality



Dutch researchers indicated in a new peer-reviewed study that COVID-19 vaccines and governmental containment policies may have boosted excess mortality in the West.

The study, published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal BMJ Public Health, explored excess all-cause deaths in 47 Western countries from 2020 to 2022. It indicated that during this period, there were 3,098,456 excess deaths: 87% of the countries under review suffered excess mortality in 2020; 89% in 2021; and 91% in 2022.

The researchers made clear that excess mortality "includes not only deaths from SARS-CoV-2 infection but also deaths related to the indirect effects of the health strategies to address the virus spread and infection."

What caught the researchers' attention was not only the persistence of high excess mortality following the pandemic but that "the highest number of excess deaths [1,256,942] was recorded" in 2021 — the year containment measures were coupled with experimental vaccination.

In 2020, when Western citizens largely only had to contend with the virus, government-limited mobility rights and shuttered schools, churches, workplaces, restaurants, and parks, there were 1,033,122 excess deaths.

In 2022, when most containment protocols had been lifted and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines was in fast decline, researchers indicated there were 808,392 excess deaths.

'This is unprecedented and raises serious concerns.'

These massive figures reflect the difference in the number of reported deaths in a country in a given year and the expected number of deaths under normal conditions. For a baseline, the Dutch researchers used Ariel Karlinsky and Dmitry Kobak's linear regression estimate model, which draws on "historical death data in a country from 2015 until 2019 and accounts for seasonal variation in mortality and year-to-year trends due to changing population structure or socioeconomic factors."

"Excess mortality has remained high in the Western World for three consecutive years, despite the implementation of COVID-19 containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines," wrote the researchers. "This is unprecedented and raises serious concerns."

"During the pandemic, it was emphasized by politicians and the media on a daily basis that every COVID-19 death mattered and every life deserved protection through containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines," continued the researchers. "In the aftermath of the pandemic, the same morale should apply."

The Dutch researchers noted at the outset of their study that while experimental COVID-19 vaccines and draconian containment measures may have been effective in protecting segments of the population — particularly those with comorbidities and the elderly — they nevertheless had "detrimental effects that cause inferior outcomes as well."

"Although COVID-19 vaccines were provided to guard civilians from suffering morbidity and mortality by the COVID-19 virus, suspected adverse events have been documented as well," wrote the researchers.

The secondary analysis of the placebo-controlled, phase III randomized clinical trials of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines showed that the Pfizer trial had a 36% higher risk of serious adverse events in the vaccine group. The risk difference was 18.0 per 10000 vaccinated (95% CI 1.2 to 34.9), and the risk ratio was 1.36 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.83). The Moderna trial had a 6% higher risk of serious adverse events among vaccine recipients. The risk difference was 7.1 per 10,000 vaccinated (95% CI −23.2 to 37.4), and the risk ratio was 1.06 (95% CI 0.84 to 1.33).39. By definition, these serious adverse events lead to either death, are life-threatening, require inpatient (prolongation of) hospitalization, cause persistent/significant disability/incapacity, concern a congenital anomaly/birth defect or include a medically important event according to medical judgement.

Previous comparisons of established flu vaccines to the novel mRNA vaccines — which the Dutch researchers indicated have been classed in multiple French studies as "gene therapy products requiring long-term stringent adverse events monitoring" — have revealed the latter to carry a far higher risk of serious adverse reactions.

'Both medical professionals and citizens have reported serious injuries and deaths following vaccination.'

COVID-19 vaccines have also been linked to various ailments, including heart disease, blood clots, hemorrhages, gut issues, thromboses, myocarditis, pericarditis, and autoimmune diseases. A number of these linkages have been well-demonstrated and even admitted by pharmaceutical giants, as in the case of AstraZeneca.

The Dutch researchers indicated that some of the risks these experimental vaccines carry were realized overtime outside of clinical trials: "Both medical professionals and citizens have reported serious injuries and deaths following vaccination to various official databases in the Western World, such as VAERS in the USA, EudraVigilance in the European Union and Yellow Card Scheme in the UK."

The researchers framed the dangers posed by the vaccines as even more troubling given the understanding that the threat posed by the virus was overblown.

The pre-vaccination infection fatality rate for persons over 60 was reportedly 0.03% and the rate was 0.07% for those over 70. It posed virtually no threat to people ages 19 and younger, who alternatively faced an infection fatality rate of 0.0003%.

Gordon Wishart, chief medical officer at Check4Cancer, told the Telegraph, "The authors are correct to point out that many vaccine-related serious adverse events may have been unreported, and point to the fact that the simultaneous onset of excess mortality and Covid vaccination in Germany is worthy of further investigation on its own."

Just as the vaccines were nowhere near as "safe and effective" as promised, the supposed health safety protocols appear to have had an inverse effect.

The study acknowledged that it is challenging to differentiate between the various causes of excess mortality, particularly because national mortality registries "not only vary in quality and thoroughness but may also not accurately document the cause of death," and there was a lack of consensus in the medical community on whether to label deaths of persons infected with COVID-19 but not caused by the disease as COVID-19 fatalities.

However, they appeared confident enough to assert that "indirect effects of containment measures have likely altered the scale and nature of disease burden for numerous causes of death since the pandemic," citing a study that indicated there was a "substantial increase" in American deaths attributed to non-COVID causes in the first two years of the pandemic.

American heart disease deaths were apparently 6% above baseline in 2020 and 2021. Diabetes deaths were 17% over baseline in 2020 and 13% over in 2021. Alzheimers disease mortality was up 19% in 2020 and 15% in 2021. Alcohol-related deaths were 28% over baseline in 2020 and up 33% in 2021. Drug-related deaths were 33% over baseline in 2020 and up 54% in 2022.

The study noted that "lockdowns, school closures, physical distancing, travel restructions, business closures, stay-at-home orders, curfews, and quarantine measures with contract tracing" had numerous adverse indirect effects such as "economic damage, limited access to education, food insecurity, child abuse, limited access to healthcare, disrupted health programmes and mental health challenges" that increased morbidity and mortality from other causes.

The researchers concluded by recommending policymakers and government officials to "thoroughly investigate underlying causes of persistent excess mortality and evaluate their health crisis policies."

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'A red flashing light': Kids and teens dying at the highest rate in decades — and the COVID-19 virus isn't directly driving the trend



New research published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that the mortality rate for minors ages 1 through 19 jumped by nearly 20% between 2019 and 2021.
This alarming spike is the largest in decades and reportedly cannot be ascribed to the COVID-19 virus.

What does the study say?

TheBlaze reported in August that there had been a precipitous drop in the average life expectancy in America for a second year in a row.

Data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics revealed that in 2019, the average American was expected at birth to live to 78 years and 10 months. That figure dropped to 77 years in 2020. In 2022, the life expectancy for the U.S. population stood at 76 years and one month — the lowest it had been since 1996.

Not only are American geriatrics dying younger on average, but the nation's youth are dying with greater frequency, bucking a trend that saw life expectancy lengthen over the course of the 20th century.

Between 2019 and 2021, the mortality rate for youths ages 1 through 19 increased by 10.7%. For the same demographic, the mortality rate jumped an additional 8.3% between 2020 and 2021.

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and the University of Washington's department of epidemiology noted that while persons ages 10-19 were driving the spike in the pediatric mortality rate, all-cause mortality also jumped by 8.4% in children ages 1-9 in 2021.

Infants (i.e., under one year old) were standouts, however, having not suffered an increase in mortality.

While the timeline might leave some to suspect that the Wuhan coronavirus played a role, the researchers noted that "this reversal in the pediatric mortality trajectory was caused not by COVID-19, but by injuries."

Lethal injuries

Injuries are defined in the paper as "all external causes of morbidity and mortality," which "involve multiple mechanisms including transportation, firearms, and poisoning."

Unintentional drug overdoses constitute a form of poisoning under this definition and since 2016, accounted for over 90% of poisoning deaths at ages 10 to 19.

A study published March 8 in the journal Pediatrics found that opioids were the leading cause of fatal poisonings among children five years old and younger from 2005 to 2018.

The leading causes of death in recent years for persons aged 1 to 19, in order, are: transport, homicide, suicide, and poisoning.

"In 2020, the COVID-19 mortality rate at ages 1 to 19 years was 0.24 deaths per 100 000, but the absolute increase in injury deaths alone was nearly 12 times higher (2.80 deaths per 100 000)," wrote the researchers. "COVID-19 mortality rates at ages 1 to 19 years nearly doubled in 2021 but explained only 20.5% of that year’s increase in all-cause mortality."

The researchers noted that the increase in pediatric injury deaths predates the pandemic — that suicide, homicide, and poisoning deaths have long been on the rise.

Suicides amongst adolescents and teens began to spike in 2007. Murders for this demographic began increasing in 2013.

"Between these nadirs and 2019, the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, mortality rates for suicide increased by 69.5% and homicide rates increased by 32.7%," says the report. "Likely contributors to both trends include increased access to firearms and a deepening mental health crisis among children and adolescents. Access to opioids (eg, fentanyl) also increased, and overdose death rates for individuals aged 10 to 19 years began increasing shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic."

Elizabeth Wolf, co-author on the paper and an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the VCU School of Medicine, said, "We've now reached a tipping point where the number of injury-related deaths is so high that it is offsetting many of the gains we’ve made in treating other diseases."

While the researchers indicated many suicides are committed using firearms, that does not account for the underlying cause.

"There is a severe shortage of mental health providers who care for children and adolescents, especially in rural areas," said Wolf. "It’s estimated that only half of children with a treatable mental health condition have access to a mental health professional."

Gender inequality

According to the researchers, the increase in injury deaths that took place in 2020 primarily involved males.

Whereas the age-specific all-cause mortality rate per 100,000 people was nearly 40 for males in 2021, the rate was just over 20 for females. In the same year, the injury mortality rate for males was over 25, it was around 11 for females.

Risk also differed greatly by race.

Black youths accounted for 62.9% of homicide victims aged 10 to 19. Black youths in this age range had a homicide rate 20 times higher than Asian, Pacific Islander, or white youths and six times higher than their Hispanic peers.

'Fuel on the fire'

The pandemic did not start these trends, but it likely exacerbated them.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in June 2021 that by May 2020, "during the COVID-19 pandemic, [emergency department] visits for suspected suicide attempts began to increase among adolescents aged 12–17 years, especially girls. During February 21–March 20, 2021, suspected suicide attempt ED visits were 50.6% higher among girls aged 12–17 years than during the same period in 2019; among boys aged 12–17 years, suspected suicide attempt ED visits increased 3.7%."

Former CDC director Robert Redfield suggested that COVID-19 health protocols and school measures may have adversely impacted America's youth, noting in July 2020, "There has been another cost that we’ve seen, particularly in high schools. We’re seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID. We’re seeing far greater deaths from drug overdose that are above excess that we had as background than we are seeing the deaths from COVID."

The researchers suggested the pandemic "may have poured fuel on the fire," citing a 22.6% spike in injury mortality at ages 10 to 19 between 2019 and 2020. Much of this surge involved homicides (up 39.1%) and overdose deaths (up 113.5%).

Wolf said the extended school closures supported across the U.S. by various teachers' unions impacted kids in "indirect ways."

"Among children aged 1 to 9, injuries explained two-thirds (63.7%) of the increase in all-cause mortality in 2021, including a 45.9% increase in deaths involving fires or burns," added the researchers.

Concerning the upward trend of pediatric mortality rates, Steven Woolf, lead author on the paper and director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University, told VCU News, "I have not seen this in my career."

"For decades, the overall death rate among U.S. children has fallen steadily, thanks to breakthroughs in prevention and treatment of diseases like premature births, pediatric cancer and birth defects. We now see a dramatic reversal of this trajectory, meaning that our children are now less likely to reach adulthood," said Woolf. "This is a red flashing light. We need to understand the causes and address them immediately to protect our children."

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