In that analysis, I adjusted for population growth.
But what about increasing age, which after all is Covid's major risk factor?
The ONS already did this for England: annual age-adjusted mortality is 2% worse than 5 years ago.
Wales is doing slightly better than 5 years ago:
Furthermore, the charts prove that this year has been safer than every year in the 2000s, for both England and Wales.
In Wales, there is no real signal that mortality is worse than a normal year.
And what about Ireland?
Here's the Irish age distribution changing over time:
It turns out that the share of the Irish population aged 70+ has increased by nearly 50% since 1980.
In the last five years alone, it has increased by nearly 15% - this is really important.
All of the senior age cohorts are now at all-time highs.
What this means is that my previous calculations were far too pessimistic. I simply divided deaths by population size, without considering how much older the population had become.
I have now adjusted for age, using some estimates where necessary.
The result is stunning.
The result is that 2020 is not simply shaping up to be an average year for Ireland.
It's shaping up to be the safest year ever, in the history of the country. Safer than all previous years.
Not exactly what the media narrative would have you believe, is it?
Here's some essential context for you: the percentage share of the UK population in the most senior age cohorts, compared to Ireland.
The UK has one of the oldest populations in the world.
CONCLUSIONS
Annual age-adjusted mortality rates in England and Wales have been set back only to the levels of 2010 and 2015, respectively.
In Ireland, there has been zero impact on annual age-adjusted mortality in 2020. Age-adjusted mortality continues to relentlessly improve.
β’ β’ β’
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It has been requested that I do a simpler version of this thread, explaining why the modellers advising the Irish government are so amazingly wrong in their forecasts and in their understanding of the risk from Covid-19.
1. The death count is wrong. We know this because it has been admitted to be wrong by the government (including by Leo Varadkar) and the number itself makes no sense.
Why is Ireland locking down again? Look no further than our Covid-19 spreadsheet modellers.
They are unshakeable in the belief that Covid-19 remains a deadly threat to the population. But as I'm about to reveal, they are standing on shaky ground.
Meet Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the Epidemiological Modelling Group on Ireland's NPHET. This man is the key provider of Covid-19 statistical analysis and forecasts to the Irish government.
Think of him as the Irish equivalent of Neil Ferguson.
In the thread above, he claims that about 1/3 of all infections were detected by PCR during the epidemic peak in April.
If that's true, and testing continued to find a high % of cases, then total infections so far might only be c. 100k-150k (vs. the official case count of 50k).
We don't have a Covid crisis - we have a public information crisis.
That's my conclusion, after reviewing the latest mortality data from Ireland.
Here are my updated and extended charts.πππ
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Firstly, remember that "Covid-19 deaths" includes people who died of other things.
Leo Varadkar:
"We counted all deaths, in all settings, suspected cases even when no lab test was done, and included people with underlying terminal illnesses who died with Covid but not of it."
Secondly, take a look at the unadjusted all-cause mortality data (with thanks to @Thorgwen).
You'll note that April 2020 (based on deaths registered so far) is comparable to flu months in January 2017 and January 2018.
Year-to-date registrations so far, up to June, look normal.
According to TheJournal, it's a "far-right conspiracy theory" that "Covid-19 death rates are being inflated as a way of justifying continued restrictions on the public."
TheJournal says "Covid-19 was a factor in all of those 1,806 deaths".
Time for a factcheck by Leo Varadkar.
Varadkar:
"In Ireland we counted all deaths, in all settings, suspected cases even when no lab test was done, and included people with underlying terminal illnesses who died with Covid but not of it."
The death count includes people who died with Covid, not of it. Got that?
Varadkar:
"This was right approach but skewed the numbers. Priority is to save lives not look good in league tables."
Is that clear enough? They skewed the numbers to "save lives", by frightening people into accepting restrictions.
Today, an RTE article makes a speculative argument that C19 is definitely worse than a bad flu, despite acknowledging fewer death notices from March to May 2020 than "either of the severe flu seasons in DecemberβFebruary in 2017/18 and 2016/17".
If you asked your barber whether you needed a haircut, would you expect an unbiased answer?
And what would you expect, if you asked the vaccine industry whether the world needed more vaccines β would they say no?
Itβs time to spill the beans, with a thread. Strap yourself in.
A few disclaimers.
Firstly, believing things which are in your economic self-interest doesnβt make you a bad person. Itβs completely normal.
Like millions of others, I would benefit financially from the scrapping of Covid-19 rules. I have no hesitation in acknowledging that.
But what about the experts who hype the risks from Covid-19? What if they might benefit from the fear they generate?
We should still trust that they act in good faith, and we should recognise their expertise (we recognise our barberβs expertise in cutting hair, after all).