- Pope singles out US for ‘irresponsible’ excess in call for action on climate change The Hill
- Pope Francis rebukes ‘irresponsible’ US on climate change compared to China, says world’s at ‘breaking point’ Fox News
- Pope Francis on climate: ‘Irresponsible’ Western lifestyle must change The Washington Post
- Commentary — Pope Francis to climate change deniers: You’re wrong Salt Lake Tribune
- In ‘Laudate Deum,’ Pope Francis presents a compelling climate crisis apologia National Catholic Reporter
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Tag Archives: Excess
Massive spike in excess deaths sparks calls for an ‘urgent investigation’
MPs have called for an urgent investigation into Britain’s soaring death rates as thousands more people than usual are dying each week.
Some 17,381 deaths were registered in England and Wales in the seven days to January 13 – 2,837 above average for the time of year.
This is the highest number of excess deaths since 3,429 in the week to February 12, 2021, when the UK was experiencing its second wave of Covid-19 infections and vaccination had only just begun.
On that occasion, deaths involving coronavirus accounted for 37 per cent of all those registered, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Some 17,381 deaths were registered in England and Wales in the seven days to January 13 – 2,837 above average for the time of year. This is the highest number of excess deaths since 3,429 in the week to February 12, 2021, when the UK was experiencing its second wave of Covid-19 infections and vaccination had only just begun
NHS England data shows that ambulance handover delays have fallen to their lowest level this winter. Less than one in four (23 per cent) ambulance patients waited 30 minutes or longer last week before be handed to A&E teams, down from 36 per cent one week earlier (red line)
The graph shows the average response times for each category of 999 calls across 11 parts of England. The South West logged the slowest response time for both category one and category two calls, taking 13 minutes and 11 seconds and 2 hours and 29 minutes on average, respectively
NHS ambulance data for December shows that 999 callers classed as category two — which includes heart attacks, strokes, burns and epilepsy — waited 1 hour, 32 minutes and 54 seconds, on average, for paramedics to arrive (shown in red bar). This is five-times longer than the 18 minute target (shown in green line). This is despite category 2 cases falling slightly to 368,042 (shown in yellow bar)
NHS A&E data for December shows that a record 54,532 people seeking emergency care were forced to wait at least 12 hours (yellow bar). Meanwhile, just 65 per cent of A&E attendees were seen within four hours (red line) — the NHS target
The graph shows the number of ambulances sent out by NHS 111 each month (green bars) and the number of calls answered by the service (red line). Staff and patients say the 111 service is unnecessarily sending out ambulances for illnesses that are minor and not in need of urgent care
Conservative former minister Esther McVey asked for an ‘urgent and thorough investigation’ into the excess deaths
But in the most recent week, Covid-19 accounted for just 5 per cent of the total – meaning other factors are likely to be driving the high level of mortality.
Health experts say this could include ambulance delays, long waits in A&E, unmet need during the pandemic and major backlogs for routine NHS care.
Excess deaths, sometimes known as extra deaths, are the number of deaths that are above the average for the same period in previous years.
This winter has seen a sharp spike in the figures, with deaths 21 per cent and 20 per cent above average in the last two weeks of December, followed by 14 per cent and 20 per cent in the first two weeks of January.
The Royal College of Emergency Medicine has warned up to 500 people a week are dying as a result of ambulance and treatment delays.
Labour’s shadow public health minister Andrew Gwynne on Tuesday accused the government of ‘denial and buck-passing’ and branded Steve Barclay ‘part-man, part-ostrich’ because of his refusal to accept the figures.
Speaking during health questions in the Commons, Mr Gwynne said: ‘There were 50,000 more deaths than we would have otherwise expected in 2022.
‘Excluding the pandemic, that is the worst figure since 1951.
‘The Health Secretary – part-man, part-ostrich – says he doesn’t accept those figures, but as many as 500 people are dying every week waiting for essential care and we’re still getting the same old Tory denial and buck-passing.’
Health minister Maria Caulfield replied: ‘Well I prefer to deal with facts…The BMJ has ranked the UK mid-table in Europe for mortality figures, comparable with Italy.
‘In fact, Germany has got higher excess deaths at 15.6 per cent, Finland at 20.5 per cent and Poland at 13.3 per cent.’
She said there are ‘clinical reasons for excess deaths, not political ones, and perhaps he needs to recognise that fact’.
Conservative former minister Esther McVey asked for an ‘urgent and thorough investigation’ into the excess deaths.
She told the Commons: ‘The Chief Medical Officer recently warned that current non-Covid excess deaths is being driven in part by patients not getting statins or blood pressure medicines during the pandemic.
‘But when looking at the data on statins on openprescribing.net, which is based on monthly NHS prescribing, there appears not to be a drop.
‘So where is the evidence? And if there isn’t one, what is causing these excess deaths?
‘Will the minister commit to an urgent and thorough investigation on the matter?’
Miss Caulfield replied: ‘We are seeing an increase in excess deaths in this country but we’re also seeing that in Wales, in Scotland, in Northern Ireland and across Europe, and there are a range of factors.
‘There’s an increase as we saw in December in the number of people being admitted with flu, with Covid and with other healthcare conditions, and this is not something just seen in this country but across Europe as well.’
The latest data shows deaths involving flu and pneumonia accounted for nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of all of those registered in England and Wales in the first two weeks of the year.
Deaths where flu and pneumonia were recorded as the underlying cause of death accounted for 9 per cent of registrations in the week to January 6 and 8 per cent in the latest week – levels not seen since before the pandemic.
The number of flu patients taking up hospital beds has been trending downwards for a fortnight after peaking at 5,779 on January 2. Latest data, for the week to January 15, shows 3,447 people infected with influenza were in hospital per day, on average, last week. The figure is 35 per cent lower than the 5,262 figure one week earlier
Around 7.2million patients in England were stuck in the backlog in November (red line)— or one in eight people. More than 400,000 have queued for at least one year (yellow bars)
Addressing the Commons Health and Social Care Committee earlier in the day, RCEM president Dr Adrian Boyle defended his college’s claim that delays to emergency care are killing hundreds of people a week.
He added: ‘We’ve certainly had the worst ever December we’ve had – if you look at performance figures on every metric, what went on in in December was terrible.
‘We’ve got serious structural problems that impair our ability to deliver urgent and emergency care.
‘Things have been going wrong for quite a long time and came to a head over December.’
Data from NHS England show that a record 54,532 people waited more than 12 hours in A&E departments last month from a decision to admit to actually being admitted.
But Dr Boyle said that some of these patients could have been waiting hours before a decision was made to admit them.
The figures also show that the proportion of patients seen within four hours in England’s A&Es fell to a record low of 65 per cent in December.
Dr Boyle called for improvements to NHS 111 to prevent unnecessary A&E visits, and for hospitals to share the burden of an influx of patients by admitting more onto wards – instead of leaving crowds of people in emergency departments for hours on end.
He said more must be done to stop the ‘haemorrhage’ of emergency care nurses, saying that he signed a leaving card every time he went to work.
Dr Boyle said too many patients are arriving at A&E when they do not need to be there, with some turning up because they cannot GP and others referred by overcautious call takers on the non-emergency NHS 111 help line.
He said doctors or nurses should have a greater role in triaging callers to the service, adding: ‘There is a lack of clinical validation and a lack of clinical access within NHS 111.
‘50% of calls to NHS 111 have some form of clinical input.
‘There’s an awful lot which are just people following an algorithm and because of that, where you have call handlers who are just following a computer generated algorithm, they are necessarily risk averse.
‘We know there’s good evidence if you get clinicians involved with NHS 111 you can reduce the number of of people who are either directed to an ambulance, to a GP or to an emergency department.’
A Solution to Excess CO2? New Study Proposes Fertilizing the Ocean
Seeding the oceans with nano-scale fertilizers could create a much-needed, substantial carbon sink. Credit: Illustration by Stephanie King | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Iron-based fertilizer in the form of nanoparticles has the potential to store excess carbon dioxide in the ocean.
An international team of researchers led by Michael Hochella of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory suggests that utilizing tiny organisms could be a solution to addressing the pressing need to remove excess carbon dioxide from the Earth’s environment.
The team conducted an analysis, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, on the possibility of seeding the oceans with iron-rich engineered fertilizer particles near ocean plankton, crucial microscopic plants in the ocean ecosystem, to boost the growth and carbon dioxide uptake of phytoplankton.
“The idea is to augment existing processes,” said Hochella, a Laboratory fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “Humans have fertilized the land to grow crops for centuries. We can learn to fertilize the oceans responsibly.”
Michael Hochella is an internationally recognized environmental geochemist. Credit: Virginia Tech Photographic Services
In nature, nutrients from the land reach oceans through rivers and blowing dust to fertilize plankton. The research team proposes moving this natural process one step further to help remove excess CO2 through the ocean. They studied evidence that suggests adding specific combinations of carefully engineered materials could effectively fertilize the oceans, encouraging phytoplankton to act as a carbon sink. The organisms would take up carbon in large quantities. Then, as they die, they would sink deep into the ocean, taking the excess carbon with them. Scientists say this proposed fertilization would simply speed up a natural process that already safely sequesters carbon in a form that could remove it from the atmosphere for thousands of years.
“At this point, time is of the essence,” said Hochella. “To combat rising temperatures, we must decrease CO2 levels on a global scale. Examining all our options, including using the oceans as a CO2 sink, gives us the best chance of cooling the planet.”
Pulling insights from the literature
In their analysis, the researchers argue that engineered nanoparticles offer several attractive attributes. They could be highly controlled and specifically tuned for different ocean environments. Surface coatings could help the particles attach to plankton. Some particles also have light-absorbing properties, allowing plankton to consume and use more CO2. The general approach could also be tuned to meet the needs of specific ocean environments. For example, one region might benefit most from iron-based particles, while silicon-based particles may be most effective elsewhere, they say.
The researchers’ analysis of 123 published studies showed that numerous non-toxic metal-oxygen materials could safely enhance plankton growth. The stability, Earth abundance, and ease of creation of these materials make them viable options as plankton fertilizers, they argue.
The team also analyzed the cost of creating and distributing different particles. While the process would be substantially more expensive than adding non-engineered materials, it would also be significantly more effective.
Reference: “Potential use of engineered nanoparticles in ocean fertilization for large-scale atmospheric carbon dioxide removal” by Peyman Babakhani, Tanapon Phenrat, Mohammed Baalousha, Kullapa Soratana, Caroline L. Peacock, Benjamin S. Twining and Michael F. Hochella Jr., 28 November 2022, Nature Nanotechnology.
DOI: 10.1038/s41565-022-01226-w
In addition to Hochella, the team included researchers from England, Thailand, and several US-based research institutions. The study was funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.
Laser that is thinner than a MATCH can burn away excess tissue to treat an enlarged prostate
A laser that’s thinner than a matchstick could be an effective new way to treat an enlarged prostate, without affecting erectile function.
The EchoLaser can be guided into place by ultrasound and will burn away excess prostate tissue without damaging nearby healthy cells. The procedure can be performed in less than 30 minutes under local anaesthetic.
It offers a new approach for treating benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), which affects around 50 per cent of men aged 50 and over.
The prostate, which is usually the size of a walnut, is located below the bladder and wraps around the urethra, the tube that carries urine out of the body.
The prostate gets bigger with age, and in BPH it gets so big that it puts pressure on the bladder and the urethra. This can lead to frequent urination and difficulty starting to pee or trouble fully emptying the bladder. These symptoms can be distressing and interfere with quality of life.
The EchoLaser can be guided into place by ultrasound and will burn away excess prostate tissue without damaging nearby healthy cells. The procedure can be performed in less than 30 minutes under local anaesthetic. A file photo is used above
Treatments range from lifestyle changes, such as drinking less alcohol and caffeine (both of which can exacerbate symptoms) to drugs, including alpha blockers, which relax the muscle in the prostate gland and the bladder neck, allowing urine to pass more freely.
Those whose symptoms don’t respond to medication may be offered surgery to remove the excess prostate tissue.
Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) is considered the gold standard surgical treatment for this, but can have unwanted effects, including erectile dysfunction and incontinence.
It can also lead to retrograde ejaculation, where semen travels backwards into the bladder, leading to male infertility. This complication of surgery affects as many as 65 to 75 per cent of men, according to the NHS, and happens as a result of damage to the nerves and muscles between the bladder and prostate.
EchoLaser, it is hoped, could offer a less risky option. It consists of an optical fibre, the width of two human hairs, which carry the laser light inside a fine needle which is around one-third of a millimetre in diameter.
The needle is inserted through the perineum (the space between the anus and scrotum) and guided into position.
Treatments range from lifestyle changes, such as drinking less alcohol and caffeine (both of which can exacerbate symptoms) to drugs, including alpha blockers, which relax the muscle in the prostate gland and the bladder neck, allowing urine to pass more freely. A file photo is used above
When activated, a rotating ball of heat is created at the end of the needle, which heats and destroys the unwanted tissue.
New research based on 38 men shows it to be effective and safe.
All the patients were discharged within eight hours and, after one month, urinary flow had improved by a third, on average, and the amount of urine left in the bladder halved.
The urologists from the University of Florence, who carried out the trial, reported in the journal Frontiers in Urology, said that there were no cases of retrograde ejaculation and all the men no longer needed the medication for enlarged prostate that they had been taking.
Commenting on the research, Professor Raj Persad, a consultant urologist at Bristol Urology, said: ‘Over the years, because of the potential side-effects of the traditional operation for BPH [i.e. TURP], which include bleeding, urethra and bladder neck scarring, various minimally invasive procedures have been devised.
‘If the efficacy of this [EchoLaser] approach is as good as the others, it will be a major contender for BPH treatment being offered with the least inconvenience and potential side-effects for the patient.
‘It may turn out to be a cost-effective treatment to an already financially challenged NHS.’
An extract of a berry from a dwarf pine tree may be as effective as medication for enlarged prostate, according to a study by medics from Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, published in Drugs & Aging.
Researchers found that the extract of saw palmetto berries was as effective as an alpha-blocker drug at improving urinary flow and reducing the size of the prostate.
It is believed the berry extract has an anti-inflammatory effect, helping to shrink the gland.
Did you know?
Dogs may smell stress from our sweat, recent research suggests — a finding that could help train therapy dogs better. Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast took sweat samples from 36 participants before and after they did a maths quiz and found that dogs were able to identify between the participants’ relaxed and stressed scents, even when they didn’t know the person.
Stress sweat is released in response to cortisol and adrenaline (the stress hormones) by glands in the skin.
Jabs of blood ease dry eyes
Dry eyes can be treated using the patient’s own blood.
Research suggests that injecting a few drops of platelet-rich blood into the tear glands of people with severe dry eye disease led to a 50 per cent improvement in tear production after three months.
Dry eye affects up to 50 per cent of adults, and typically occurs when the lacrimal glands don’t produce enough tears.
In the study, reported in BMC Ophthalmology, researchers took blood from 28 patients and processed it to boost the concentration of platelets, which are rich in growth factors. The solution was injected into one eye, with the other eye acting as a control.
Dry eye affects up to 50 per cent of adults, and typically occurs when the lacrimal glands don’t produce enough tears
Fish can protect brain from toxins
Eating fish strengthens the blood- brain barrier — a ‘wall’ of specialist cells that stops harmful toxins linked with conditions such as dementia from entering the brain, say researchers at Nottingham Trent University and Queen Mary University of London.
Fish and seafood contain a molecule called trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), which makes the brain barrier less leaky.
Tests by the scientists on mice showed those with the highest levels of TMAO in their blood were less likely to have problems remembering or recognising things, the journal Microbiome reports.
Rolls-Royce Spectre EV signals excess but isn’t a guzzler
The Rolls-Royce Spectre is the automaker’s first electric car to see production, and it proves even gilded luxury cars don’t have to be inefficient.
Because despite living up to Rolls’ tradition of excess—and that it’s a two-door car with a 214-plus-inch length—efficiency is actually pretty good, at 2.9 mi/kwh on the European WLTP testing cycle. For context, the GMC Hummer EV is in the range of 1.5 mi/kwh, although its size excludes it from official ratings.
Due to start deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2023, the Spectre will also deliver an estimated 260 miles of range on the EPA testing cycle, when equipped with 23-inch wheels. Rolls didn’t disclose the size of the battery pack, however, only saying that it weighs 1,543 lbs—almost a quarter of the Spectre’s 6,559-lb curb weight. It does provide a lot of sound deadening, Rolls noted.
Rolls-Royce Spectre
That’s an astounding weight for a two-door, four-seat coupe, especially considering that the Spectre uses an aluminum space-frame architecture. It’s an adapted version of the one used by Rolls’ current gasoline models, but the automaker claims a 30% increase in rigidity thanks to use of the pack as a structural element and some steel reinforcement, which likely doesn’t help with curb weight.
A 0.25 coefficient of drag makes the Spectre the most aerodynamic Rolls production car ever. That’s not quite as low as the Lucid Air, Mercedes-Benz EQS, and Tesla Model S, which come in at 0.20 to 0.21, but Rolls also went with a more traditional shape, with a strong resemblance to the Wraith coupe the Spectre essentially replaces. It even retains that coupe’s suicide doors.
A dual-motor all-wheel drive powertrain produces an estimated 577 hp and 664 lb-ft of torque. This should enable 0-60 mph in 4.4 seconds, Rolls estimates, while the top speed is capped at 150 mph.
Rolls-Royce Spectre
The Spectre is more about comfort than performance, though. Rolls addressed that with what it calls a Planar suspension system, an electronic roll-stabilization system that can pull data from more than 18 sensors to read the road surface and monitor vehicle status, as well as information from the navigation system, for suspension adjustments.
On straight roads, the system can decouple the anti-roll bars, allowing each wheel to move independently for a smoother ride that negates the vibration or rocking motion that typically occurs when only wheels on one side hit a bump, according to Rolls. Using the navigation system to anticipate curves, the system can re-couple the anti-roll bars, stiffen the dampers, and engage a four-wheel steering system for drama-free cornering.
Rolls-Royce Spectre
Rolls-Royce Spectre
Rolls-Royce Spectre
The interior is typical Rolls-Royce, with high-end materials and a high level of personalization potential. As with other Rolls models, the headliner can be equipped with illuminated “stars,” but in the Spectre they now extend to the door panels as well.
The Spectre has been a long time coming. Rolls first hinted at an electric car about a decade ago with the Phantom 102EX prototype. That project didn’t go anywhere and was replaced with a plan for plug-in hybrids. But then in 2016, the company seemingly returned to an electric vision.
Rolls-Royce is now due to go all-electric by 2030 under parent BMW’s ambitious electrification plan. It’s amounted to some noteworthy synergy with the Rolls-Royce aviation company, from which the car business was split off in 1973, which is also experimenting with electrification.
2022 Excess Deaths All Around the World Raise an Alarm
Rab Wardell, the newly crowned Scottish MTB XC champion, passed away in his sleep a few days after winning the Scottish cycling title at the age of 37.
Katie Archibald, his partner and Olympic champion, tweeted that “he had suffered a cardiac arrest.” According to Archibald, although she tried her best to revive him, and the paramedics arrived within minutes, they still couldn’t save him.
In a statement, British Cycling expressed its sorrow to lose a “brilliant rider, friend and ambassador for our sport.”
At the time of writing, the cause of Wardell’s cardiac arrest still remains unknown.
Inquiry Into Excess Deaths in Scotland Since the Start of COVID-19 Pandemic
The Scottish government has started an inquiry into the causes of excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland.
Excess deaths refer to the total number of deaths in a week in 2022 minus the average number of deaths in the same week over the period from 2016 to 2021, while excluding 2020 to not inflate the previous years’ average, as there was a large number of deaths in spring 2020 (Excess Deaths = Total Number of Deaths – Average Number of Deaths in Previous Years).
Excess deaths include deaths caused by the pandemic and those from other causes.
According to the official website of the Scottish Parliament, the weekly numbers of deaths in Scotland between April 2020 and April 2022 (the latest available date) are larger than the average numbers of deaths in the same weeks of previous years, for most of the weeks during this period.
For instance, for the week beginning January 4, 2021, there were 1,720 deaths, while the previous years’ average for the weeks beginning January 4 (from 2016 to 2019) was 1,276, so the number of excess deaths was 444 (34.80 percent).
However, what’s unclear is the extent to which the excess deaths are caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, or if they are due to other reasons.
In June 2022, in an article published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology, recommended gene testing athletes to prevent sudden cardiac death.
Sports cardiology is an advanced field of practice that evaluates athletes for genetically determined cardiac conditions which may lead to malignant arrhythmias, heart failure, and sudden cardiac death. Genetic testing is becoming more widely used in sports cardiology, and it is generally considered as part of a comprehensive cardiac assessment in athletes.
According to the statistics, up to 80 percent of athletes who die suddenly had no symptoms or family history of heart disease. Moreover, other than the case of Rab Wardell, a universal pattern of increased excess mortality has been reported all over the world.
However, genetic factors are rather stable factors which won’t normally directly cause death unless there are significant external risk factors. As the saying goes, internal causes are like basic prerequisites, like a seed, while external factors are like sunlight or water. The seed will grow into a plant only with the suitable conditions of temperature, sunlight, and water.
We could not attribute a large number of excess death rates to the genetic factors alone. There must be other external triggers to be found.
Excess Mortality in England and Wales
Beyond Scotland, other areas of the UK also experienced an unexplained rise in excess deaths. According to the latest data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), from June to late August 2022, around 1,000 excess deaths took place in England and Wales each week. However, most of them are unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For instance, in the week ending August 26, there were 1,556 cases of excess mortality, but only approximately 4.1 percent (i.e. 453 cases out of total 10,942 deaths) of them were caused by the pandemic.
Before the end of March 2022, deaths in England and Wales were fewer than usual, although several hundreds of people were still dying from the pandemic every week. However, the situation changed subsequently, with the number of excess deaths rising or sometimes fluctuating, even though the numbers and percentages of COVID-19 deaths have been falling.
For example, during the five weeks beginning July 29, the percentages of COVID-related deaths were 7.4 (810 cases out of a total of 11,013 deaths), 6.8 (723 cases out of 10,698), 5.7 (592 cases out of 10,355), 5.0 (551 cases out of 10,982), and 4.1 (453 cases out of 10,942), respectively, with declines on a weekly basis.
On the contrary, during the same time period, the weekly numbers of excess deaths were 1,678, 1,350, 950, 1,719, and 1,556, respectively, with declines in the first three weeks—but surprisingly an increase in the latter two weeks.
Currently, many baffled and worried health experts in the UK are calling for an urgent government investigation into these excess deaths. Among them, there is Dr. Charles Levinson, chief executive of the private general practice company DoctorCall. According to Levinson, the causes of these excess deaths are complicated and not fully understood by the medical professionals in the UK, thus there’s an urgent need for a comprehensive government inquiry.
If the current trajectory continues, the number of non-COVID-related excess deaths will soon outstrip the number of COVID-related deaths in 2022 in the UK.
Excess All-cause Mortality in the United States
According to a study on the medRxiv preprint server, the U.S. official COVID-19 death counts have underestimated the pandemic’s impact on mortality. An estimated 936,911 excess deaths occurred during 2020 and 2021. Among them, 171,168 cases(18.3 percent) were not assigned to COVID-19 on the death certificates as an underlying cause of death. The excess mortality in this case refers to the difference between the expected deaths before the pandemic and the actual deaths, which is a universal definition all over the world. (Excess Deaths = Actual Reported Deaths – Expected Deaths Prior to 2020. The expected number of deaths is derived from the numbers of deaths for the same time period in the previous years.)
Rising Excess Deaths All Over the World
The United States and the UK are not alone in this trend of unexplained rising excess deaths. Similar phenomena have been taking place in many countries, as attested by statistics from the scientific online publication Our World in Data. The site uses the same definition for excess mortality as defined above.
As different countries have vastly different populations, the number of excess deaths is not a useful measure for comparison purposes. To better enable comparisons across different countries, the P-score can be used.
P-score is calculated by dividing the difference between reported deaths and expected deaths by the expected deaths first and then times 100.
[P-score = (Reported Deaths – Expected Deaths)/ Expected Deaths x 100] OR [P-score = Excess Deaths / Expected Deaths x 100]
For instance, if a P-score is 50 percent in a given week, it implies that the actual number of deaths for that week is 50 percent higher than the expected (i.e. projected) number of deaths, had the COVID-19 pandemic never taken place.
Top 5 Countries With Cumulative Excess Deaths Since COVID Pandemic
As per the graph, from January 2020 to early July 2022, the top five countries with cumulative excess deaths are Russia, the United States, Brazil, Mexico ,and Egypt.
Among these countries, the United States boasts of a population of over 338 million, Brazil has a population of over 215 million, and the other three countries all have a population of over 110 million.
As they are all countries with relatively large populations in the world, and given the fact that certain countries with larger populations such as China, India, and Pakistan might have grossly understated their numbers of COVID-related deaths, it’s not surprising that these five countries are shown with the largest numbers of excess deaths. This phenomenon in fact logically indicates that the excess death is proportionally related to population toll in each country.
This is a clear signal that the above mentioned high excess death rates is not a country or local or geographic specific reason. It must have been caused by a certain type of health risk factor that has the power to influence the whole human world during 2021-2022.
But what event could possibly have such significant power? Even the global infection rate of COVID-19 is around 3 percent, which does not justify COVID-19 itself to be categorized as a global health risk factor.
What, then, could be classified as a global health risk factor with the power to influence the majority of the global population?
Unexplained Excess Death Rates in 2022 During Omicron Period
As per the graph, from January 2022 to the end of July 2022, several countries experienced significant increases in their excess mortality rates, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Israel, and the United States. The excess mortality rates here are measured by the P-score.
During this time period, the COVID-19 Omicron variant was the most prevalent. Although highly transmissible, Omicron’s infection fatality ratio is 78.7 percent lower than that of the previous strains. According to a study on the medRxiv preprint server, Omicron’s death rate over the general population is 0.021 percent.
Accordingly, in theory, if the excess death rate had been directly caused by SARS-CoV-2, the absolute excess death number should be decreasing in 2022, after Omicron’s spread.
Let’s do a simplified calculation of the excess death rate that should have been caused by Omicron in the UK.
During the five-year period from 2015 to 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic started to wreak havoc in the UK, the crude death rate per 1,000 people was 9. Therefore, the mortality rate was 0.9 percent (= 9/1,000 x 100). In 2022, the UK has a population of 67.58 million.
Assuming that all the excess deaths in the UK were caused by Omicron from January to July 2022, the number of excess deaths should be 14,192 (= 0.021% x 67.58 million). The expected number of deaths would be 608,220.
On the other hand, if the Omicron-caused deaths explained the excess death rate in the UK, the excess death rate would be only 2.3 percent (=14,192/608,220 x 100), which was much lower than the excess death rate exhibited in the graph.
Therefore, the Omicron variant could not be the main cause of all the excess deaths in the UK.
This should also be the case in Germany, Australia, Israel, and the United States.
Investigation Into Potential Causes of Excess Deaths
Regardless of the diseases that directly cause their deaths, many people die from old age every year. Due to weakened immunity, the elderly are especially prone to COVID-19 infection. Therefore, as of August 24, 2022, 74.7 percent of the total COVID-related deaths in the United States were among people aged 65 or older.
So, it can be inferred that many elderly people died of the more lethal viruses, such as alpha and delta, in 2021 from the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the number of excess deaths in 2022 should actually be below the number of expected deaths.
Apparently, the consistent pattern of unexpected high levels of excess deaths across the globe is abnormal. This issue warrants an investigation that may involve accessing the raw data on death certificates (i.e. causes of death), checking a random sample of medical records, analyzing autopsy reports, and transparently examining the deceased’s COVID-19 vaccination status.
Heart Diseases as a Major Concern of Academic Journals
According to the UK’s Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, from the week ending on June 24, 2000 to the week ending on June 24, 2022, the leading causes of excess deaths included ischemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, other circulatory diseases, heart failure, and cancer.
A study published in July 2022 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine indicates that the major causes of death in the United States from March 2020 to October 2021 were heart disease and cancer. Specifically, 20.1 percent of deaths were due to heart disease, and 17.5 percent were caused by cancer. Together, they accounted for 1.29 million deaths, while, at the same time, COVID-19 infection was the cause of 350,000 deaths.
Another study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in August 2021, by using data collected from more than 40 American medical institutions, shows that the number of myocarditis and pericarditis cases increased sharply after around 2 million people received the COVID-19 vaccines in the United States.
The median onset of myocarditis is around 3.5 days after vaccination, and there is a strong correlation between the time of onset and the time of vaccination. Among the myocarditis patients, 80 percent developed the symptoms after the second dose.
The median onset of pericarditis in patients is 20 days after receiving the COVID-19 vaccines; and in 60 percent of the cases, the onset of symptoms took place after the second dose.
Cardiovascular problems, including carditis, heart attack, and stroke can be caused by COVID-19 infection or mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.
According to an article published in the journal Nature, some studies have shown that the risk of heart problems remains high many months after a patient recovers from a COVID-19 infection.
Furthermore, on June 9, 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that myocarditis and pericarditis have been reported after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination (Pfizer or Moderna), especially among adolescents and young adult males within several days after their second dose of vaccination.
According to Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, deputy director of the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office, as of June 9, 226 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis after vaccination in people younger than age 30 had been confirmed.
Both Pfizer and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are based on mRNA-containing lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). According to a study published in December 2021 in the journal iScience, there is evidence that the LNPs used in preclinical mRNA vaccine studies have been found to be highly inflammatory in mice. Injection of these LNPs into the mice caused rapid and robust inflammatory responses. Maybe this can explain the underlying cause of post-vaccine carditis, which is the inflammation of the heart, including myocarditis and pericarditis.
VAERS Data Suggest a Large Number of Post-Vaccination Deaths and Rising Adverse Events
Not coincidentally, there are an alarming number of adverse events reportedly associated with COVID-19 vaccine jabs, including deaths.
The latest numbers of COVID-19 vaccine adverse events in the American Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) as of August 26, 2022 were: 1,394,703 reports of vaccine adverse events, including 30,605 deaths, 175,020 hospitalizations, 134,530 cases of urgent care, and 204,343 doctor office visits. There were also 51,879 cases of myocarditis/pericarditis, 16,385 heart attacks, and 8,942 cases of thrombocytopenia/low platelets.
The total number of reported deaths after COVID vaccination was extraordinarily large in 2021; so was the number shown by the incomplete data of 2022. In the majority of these cases, the patients passed away 0 to 7 days after COVID-19 vaccination; and in around half of the cases, deaths took place within 0 to 3 days after vaccination. Such short durations clearly indicate the causal relationship between COVID-19 vaccination and these deaths.
Government Data: More Than 70 Percent COVID-related Deaths Occurred After Booster Doses
The provincial government of Manitoba in Canada reported in July 2022 that the vaccine booster shot administration rate in the province was 43.8 percent in May 2022. However, people who had received booster injections accounted for more than 70 percent of COVID-related deaths.
Furthermore, according to the UK Health Security Agency’s COVID-19 vaccine surveillance report published on March 31, 2022, 73 percent of deaths within 28 days of infection were among people who had received their third vaccine doses, before their COVID-19 infection diagnosis was confirmed (pdf).
The fact that such a majority of people (over 70%) with 3 doses of COVID-19 vaccine contribute to the cause of death in two major countries with the world’s most advanced medical system, is convincingly suggesting that COVID-19 jabs are a potential health risk factor. The impact of COVID-19 jabs are also dose-dependent.
Research Findings Point to Possible Injuries Due to Spike Protein
Many studies have shown that the SARS-CoV-2 virus’s spike protein can potentially cause injuries to our cardiac pericytes, endothelial function, mitochondria, DNA self-repairing mechanisms, and immunity.
As COVID-19 vaccine injections also contain spike protein, the vaccines can cause injuries in our heart, nerves, brain, and vessels. All of these potential injuries can lead to cardiovascular problems or even sudden deaths.
We herein call for a transparent global investigation into this urgent issue of rising excess deaths as soon as possible. When it comes to people’s health and well-being, there’s no time to waste, and it’s unacceptable to wait.
Based on the aforementioned evidence, there is a strong possibility that the ascending global trend of excess deaths is at least partially contributed to by the COVID-19 vaccine jabs. Or, at least the that role COVID-19 vaccines might have played in this issue should be thoroughly investigated and the results should be publicly announced.
As the Chinese idiom goes, “After you lose a sheep, it’s not too late to fix the pen.” It’s never too late to take remedial action.
However, if we keep losing sheep without correcting the root causes, we would in one day lose all the sheep.
If no action is taken as these reg flags become increasingly obvious, we fear the heavy burden of responsibility will become greater than any single person could possibly bear.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.
Target warns of more margin squeeze as excess inventory weighs
June 7 (Reuters) – Target Corp (TGT.N) on Tuesday cut its quarterly profit margin forecast issued just weeks earlier, and said it would have to offer deeper discounts to clear inventory as decades-high inflation takes a toll on demand.
The surprise outlook revision sent shares of Target down nearly 7% in early trading and weighed on the retail sector and broader markets.
The retailer said it would mark down prices in the second quarter, cancel orders with suppliers, strengthen parts of its supply chain and prioritize categories such as food and household essentials.
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Soaring inflation is forcing consumers to change their shopping habits, catching many retailers off guard and forcing them to offer more discounts.
Target, along with Walmart (WMT.N), had reported a much steeper-than-expected drop in quarterly profit in May, sending shockwaves through the retail industry. read more
At the time, Target said its inventory rose 43%, compared with a year earlier, as demand for high-margin discretionary items such as kitchen appliances and televisions waned.
“Target was a retailer that had done exceptionally well at managing inventory challenges, but now when consumers … are pausing to see where they’re spending, what was once an advantage may come back to bite,” Jane Hali & Associates analyst Jessica Ramirez said.
Target’s strategy to keep most of its products affordable compared with its rivals is proving to be costly, with the company now saying it would raise prices on some items to offset the unusually high transportation and fuel costs.
The company now expects second-quarter operating margin to be about 2%, compared with its prior estimate of 5.3%. It also expects margins to be around 6% for the second half of the year.
Still, Target maintained its sales goals for the year, prompting some Wall Street analysts to say the company’s aggressive measures could help it come out on top later in the year.
“While this is a painful period for Target, taking their medicine (again) in Q1 and Q2 does set up for a better second half with cleaner inventories … (and) set up for a better second half for the stock as well,” D.A. Davidson analyst Michael Baker said.
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Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal, Susan Mathew and Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Buffett reveals big investments, rails against Wall St excess at Berkshire meeting
OMAHA, Neb., April 30 (Reuters) – Warren Buffett on Saturday used the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) to reveal major new investments including a bigger stake in Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O), while also railing against Wall Street excess and addressing the risks to his conglomerate of inflation and nuclear war.
The meeting in downtown Omaha, Nebraska was Berkshire’s first welcoming shareholders since 2019, before COVID-19 derailed America’s largest corporate gathering for two years.
It allowed shareholders to ask five hours of questions directly to Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, and some questions to Vice Chairmen Greg Abel, who would become chief executive if Buffett could not serve, and Ajit Jain.
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Buffett said Berkshire, long faulted for holding too much cash, boosted its combined stakes in oil company Chevron Corp (CVX.N) and “Call of Duty” game maker Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O) nearly six-fold to more than $31 billion. read more
Berkshire also said first-quarter operating profit was little changed at $7.04 billion, as many of its dozens of businesses withstood supply chain disruptions caused by COVID-19 variants, the Ukraine invasion and rising costs from inflation. read more
Buffett, 91, said it “really feels good” to address shareholders in person, after holding the last two meetings without them. Attendees included JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon and the actor Bill Murray.
Buffett had in his annual shareholder letter in February bemoaned the lack of investment opportunities.
That prompted a shareholder to ask what changed in March, when Berkshire bought 14.6% of Occidental Petroleum Corp (OXY.N) and agreed to buy insurer Alleghany Corp (Y.N) for $11.6 billion.
Buffett said it was simple: he turned to Occidental after reading an analyst report, and to Alleghany after its chief executive, who once led Berkshire’s General Re business, wrote to him.
“Markets do crazy things, and occasionally Berkshire gets a chance to do something,” he said. “It’s not because we’re smart…. I think we’re sane.”
Berkshire spent $51 billion on equities in the quarter, and its cash stake sank more than $40 billion to $106 billion.
But the conglomerate has many cash-generating resources, including its insurance operations, and Buffett assured that reserves won’t run dry.
“We will always have a lot of cash,” he said. “It’s like oxygen, it’s there all the time but if it disappears for a few minutes, it’s all over.”
Buffett and Jain stumbled for answers when asked about whether the Ukraine conflict could degenerate into nuclear war.
Jain, who has drawn Buffett’s praise for decades, said he had a “lack of ability” to estimate Berkshire’s insurance exposure.
Buffett added that there was a “very, very, very low” risk of a nuclear attack, though the world had “come close” during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
“The world is flipping a coin every day,” Buffett said. “Berkshire does not have an answer.”
Buffett also picked on a favored target in saying stock markets sometimes resembled a casino or gambling partner.
“That existed to an extraordinary degree in the last couple of years, encouraged by Wall Street,” he said.
For his part, Munger, 98, echoed Nancy Reagan in criticizing bitcoin, saying that if an advisor suggested you put your retirement account there, “just say no.” Munger also criticized trading firm Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD.O) read more
He and Buffett munched their familiar candies from See’s, which Berkshire owns, and drank soda from Coca-Cola, a big Berkshire investment, at the meeting.
Abel defended Berkshire’s BNSF railroad, saying there was “more to be done” to improve operations and customer service, and compete against rival Union Pacific Corp (UNP.N).
Buffett also said Berkshire is designed to assure shareholders that the company and its business culture will survive his and Munger’s departures.
“Berkshire is built forever,” he said.
Shareholders also rejected proposals requiring Berkshire to disclose more about how its businesses promote diversity and address climate risks, and install an independent chairman to replace Buffett in that role. read more
Buffett has run Berkshire since 1965, and Mario Gabelli, chairman of Gamco Advisors and a prominent Berkshire investor, opposed ending his chairmanship.
“It’s not inappropriate for companies to look at separating the chair and CEO,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense in the case of Berkshire Hathaway because this guy has done a fantastic job for 50 years. We like the idea, but not here.”
Thousands of people massed outside the downtown arena housing the meeting before doors opened at 7 a.m. (1200 GMT).
Berkshire had projected lower attendance than in 2019, and about 10% to 15% of seats in the normally-full arena were empty.
As at other Berkshire-sponsored events this weekend, nearly all attendees did not wear masks, though all needed proof of COVID-19 vaccination. CNBC.com webcast the meeting.
“I bought a chair from Walmart so I could sit down,” said Tom Spain, founder of Henry Spain Investment Services in Market Harborough, England, who arrived at 3:15 a.m. for his third meeting. “Everyone has been using it. Next year I might bring a massive container of coffee and give it out.”
Lauritz Fenselau, a 23-year-old owner of a software startup from Frankfurt, Germany, showed up at 4 a.m. for his first meeting. “It’s like a pilgrimage,” he said.
Also sleep-deprived was Andres Avila, who arrived in Omaha from Boston just five hours before getting in line at 4:45 a.m., carrying an umbrella to fend off the rain.
“I have a bunch of my idols here,” he said.
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Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Carolina Mandl in Omaha, Nebraska; editing by Megan Davies, Ros Russell and Diane Craft
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Lifelong excess weight can nearly double risk of womb cancer – study | Cancer
Lifelong excess weight may almost double a woman’s risk of developing womb cancer, research suggests.
Scientists and doctors have known for some time that being overweight or obese increases the risk of the disease. About one in three cases in the UK (34%) are linked to excess weight.
Now researchers at the University of Bristol have been able to shed further light on the link as well as the extent of the increased risk. They found that for every five extra BMI units, a woman’s risk of endometrial cancer increases by 88%. The research was funded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and published in the journal BMC Medicine.
The increased risk is higher than suggested by previous studies and reflects lifelong weight status rather than a snapshot in time, used in most other studies. Five BMI units is the difference between the overweight and the obese category, or of a 5ft 5in adult woman being two stones heavier, according to CRUK.
“Studies like this bolster the fact that being overweight or obese is the second biggest cause of cancer in the UK and can help us start to pinpoint why,” said Dr Julie Sharp, the head of health information at CRUK. “This will play a pivotal role in uncovering how to prevent and treat cancer in the future.
“More research is needed to investigate exactly which treatments and drugs could be used to manage cancer risk among people struggling with obesity. We already know that being overweight or obese increases your risk of developing 13 different types of cancer. To reduce your cancer risk, it is important to maintain a healthy weight by eating a balanced diet and staying active.”
The study looked at endometrial cancer, the most common type of womb cancer, which affects the lining of the uterus – the endometrium. One in 36 women born after 1960 in the UK will be diagnosed with womb cancer in their lifetime.
Genetic samples from 120,000 women in the UK, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the US were examined. About 13,000 of them had womb cancer.
Researchers looked at markers of 14 traits which may link obesity and womb cancer. They found two hormones – fasting insulin and testosterone – which increased the risk of womb cancer.
By pinpointing how obesity raises the risk, such as via hormones, experts hope that in future drugs could be used to cut or increase the level of specific hormones in people at higher risk of developing cancer.
“This study is an interesting first step into how genetic analyses could be used to uncover exactly how obesity causes cancer, and what can be done to tackle it,” said Emma Hazelwood, the lead author of the study.
“Links between obesity and womb cancer are well known but this is one of the largest studies which has looked into exactly why that is on a molecular level. We look forward to further research exploring how we can now use this information to help reduce the risk of cancer in people struggling with obesity.”
Lifelong excess weight can nearly double risk of womb cancer – study | Cancer
Lifelong excess weight may almost double a woman’s risk of developing womb cancer, research suggests.
Scientists and doctors have known for some time that being overweight or obese increases the risk of the disease. About one in three cases in the UK (34%) are linked to excess weight.
Now researchers at the University of Bristol have been able to shed further light on the link as well as the extent of the increased risk. They found that for every five extra BMI units, a woman’s risk of endometrial cancer increases by 88%. The research was funded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and published in the journal BMC Medicine.
The increased risk is higher than suggested by previous studies and reflects lifelong weight status rather than a snapshot in time, used in most other studies. Five BMI units is the difference between the overweight and the obese category, or of a 5ft 5in adult woman being two stones heavier, according to CRUK.
“Studies like this bolster the fact that being overweight or obese is the second biggest cause of cancer in the UK and can help us start to pinpoint why,” said Dr Julie Sharp, the head of health information at CRUK. “This will play a pivotal role in uncovering how to prevent and treat cancer in the future.
“More research is needed to investigate exactly which treatments and drugs could be used to manage cancer risk among people struggling with obesity. We already know that being overweight or obese increases your risk of developing 13 different types of cancer. To reduce your cancer risk, it is important to maintain a healthy weight by eating a balanced diet and staying active.”
The study looked at endometrial cancer, the most common type of womb cancer, which affects the lining of the uterus – the endometrium. One in 36 women born after 1960 in the UK will be diagnosed with womb cancer in their lifetime.
Genetic samples from 120,000 women in the UK, Australia, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the US were examined. About 13,000 of them had womb cancer.
Researchers looked at markers of 14 traits which may link obesity and womb cancer. They found two hormones – fasting insulin and testosterone – which increased the risk of womb cancer.
By pinpointing how obesity raises the risk, such as via hormones, experts hope that in future drugs could be used to cut or increase the level of specific hormones in people at higher risk of developing cancer.
“This study is an interesting first step into how genetic analyses could be used to uncover exactly how obesity causes cancer, and what can be done to tackle it,” said Emma Hazelwood, the lead author of the study.
“Links between obesity and womb cancer are well known but this is one of the largest studies which has looked into exactly why that is on a molecular level. We look forward to further research exploring how we can now use this information to help reduce the risk of cancer in people struggling with obesity.”