British health experts panic over excess deaths

British health experts continue to raise the alarm over a steep increase in excess deaths since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an article recently published in The Lancet, academic and government health officials state there were between 28,000 and 28,500 excess deaths in the first six months of 2023. This represents an 8.6% increase in excess mortality against a five-year average, excluding 2020. It is also higher than the 7.2% increase in 2022, when 44,255 excess deaths were registered in the UK.

Most deaths were cardiac related. Of all excess deaths registered between June 2022 and June 2023, cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounted for 12%, heart failure caused 20%, and 15% died from ischaemic heart disease. Other causes of death included liver disease (19%), acute respiratory infections (14%), and diabetes (13%). Cardiac-related deaths were particularly high among the 50–64 population.

The UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) also found that deaths in the home were 22% higher than expected while hospice deaths were 12% lower, suggesting that many of these deaths were sudden and unexpected.

Furthermore, the authors note in their article that as opposed to the pandemic when older adults accounted for most excess deaths, the affected populations are now mostly middle-aged and younger adults:

The greatest numbers of excess deaths in the acute phase of the pandemic were in older adults. The pattern now is one of persisting excess deaths which are most prominent in relative terms in middle-aged and younger adults, with deaths from CVD causes and deaths in private homes being most affected.

As far as what is causing this surge in excess deaths, the authors suggest several possibilities but remain unsure:

The causes of these excess deaths are likely to be multiple and could include the direct effects of Covid-19 infection, acute pressures on NHS acute services resulting in poorer outcomes from episodes of acute illness, and disruption to chronic disease detection and management. Further analysis by cause and by age- and sex-group may help quantify the relative contributions of these causes.

Many of these deaths would be classified as Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS), which the British Heart Foundation defines as “when someone dies suddenly and unexpectedly from a cardiac arrest, but the cause of the cardiac arrest can’t be found.”

The UK has been mystified for months over the increase in unexplained deaths, which has academics and media operatives searching for answers. 

Several hypotheses have been put forward, including UK Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty’s claim that the deaths were caused by a drop in heart medication prescriptions, though no such drop was found. Others tried blaming the deaths on doctors’ strikes, though the British Medical Association refuted this claim as well. In May, the Mirror suggested “climate change” may be a factor because “[h]eat in particular persistently returns during the summer, and given climate change will only continue to pose such a fatal threat.”

Now “medical experts” are calling for an investigation into the excess deaths, primarily out of concern that the COVID-19 vaccines might be blamed.

Visiting doctor service Doctorcall Medical Director Dr. Charles Levinson says the government’s “radio silence” is giving way to “dangerous theories,” which Express UK clarifies are coming from “anti-vaxxers.”

“A refusal to openly discuss these statistics is an abdication of responsibility from parts of the scientific community, leading to an irreversible erosion of trust by parts of society,” said Levinson. “There has been radio silence on the crisis from almost all, leaving a vacuum which is being filled by dangerous theories.”

Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-based Medicine Director Professor Carl Heneghan also called for an investigation into the rising death toll, though he said any suggestion involving vaccines is “wild speculation.”

“There has been a complete failure by the Government to investigate these deaths correctly. This means we don’t know how to prevent further unnecessary deaths, fuelling wild speculation about the drivers,” said Heneghan.

Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a significant correlation between the COVID-19 vaccines and a 25% increase in cardiac events among young people. The State of Florida, in a statement recommending against vaccinating males aged 18–39, cited their own investigation that showed an 84% increase in the relative incidence of cardiac-related death among males 18–39 years old within 28 days of an mRNA vaccination.

Another worrying and so far “unexplained” trend in Great Britain is a 50% increase in heart arrhythmia. Around 1 in 45 Britons now suffer from atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat, according to the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

The BHF analyzed data from the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and found that the number of atrial fibrillation cases has “astonishingly” topped 1.5 million, a rapid growth from one million cases in 2013.