Perpetuated Excess Death in New Zealand

Post #634

In this prior post regarding New Zealand’s decline in what is called “natural increase” (births - deaths), it was discovered that births haven’t changed, but deaths have gone up.

More disturbingly, the excess of deaths didn’t really kick-in until COVID had mutated to Omicron variant — a variant less lethal than flu (a variant similar to the common cold). Here is an age breakdown showing how the elderly in New Zealand are still dying in excess:

In 2022, there were some weeks when the excess weekly death for those over age 74 was at least 40% — though the “all ages” excess death at bottom right didn’t reach that high, but did have a few weeks above 30% excess.

Because the circulating respiratory disease (Omicron) was one that was less lethal than flu during those weeks, an alternate explanation of the excess death is required.

Reference

[Omicron only 20% as lethal (less lethal than flu)] — Differences in case-fatality-rate of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. Public Health in Practice. Volume 5, June 2023, 100350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhip.2022.100350