News Round-Up
26 July 2024
Government Has Just Declared War on Free Speech
26 July 2024
by Toby Young
Almost 10,000 extra people have died from non-Covid illnesses in England and Wales since the summer, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Retired Professor of Biology Richard Ennos has written to the Scottish Government expressing his concern at the high level of excess deaths this summer and raising the potential role of the vaccines in driving it.
In 2019, nine out of ten people lived in countries with a higher level of mortality than Britain experienced last year. While the change in mortality last year was historically high, the level to which it rose was not.
Despite spectacular levels of spending and impressive vaccination rates, the U.K. has fared poorly in the pandemic compared both to one of Europe's poorer countries and to other island nations.
August's age-standardised mortality rate was 2.5% higher than the five-year average. But looking at age-adjusted mortality in the first eight months of the year, 2021 is the sixth least deadly year on record.
Is there a relationship between the roll out of Covid vaccines and the increase in non-Covid-related heart attacks? An economist investigates for the Daily Sceptic.
Why have COVID death rates been so low in East Asia? One factor that's often mentioned is lack of obesity. But this can’t explain more than a small part of the difference between East Asia and the rest of the world.
The age-standardised rate from January through July was only 0.8% higher than the five-year average. Another month without many excess deaths and 2021 will officially be an 'average year' for English mortality.
June's age-standardised mortality rate was the second-lowest on record for that month. England has now had *four months in a row* of "negative excess mortality". Average mortality up to June was lower than in 2018.
A new paper claims that lockdowns do not cause more health harms than they prevent. But the harmful long-term effects of lockdown are yet to be quantified, so the authors have little basis for their conclusion.
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