Some fascinating new data on 2020 deaths in Australia from @ABSStats:
- no excess mortality
- a modest (-0.8%) DECREASE in deaths
- biggest driver of the decrease is the massive (-37%) reduction in flu deaths
abs.gov.au/statistics/hea…
- no excess mortality
- a modest (-0.8%) DECREASE in deaths
- biggest driver of the decrease is the massive (-37%) reduction in flu deaths
abs.gov.au/statistics/hea…
Pretty amazing that, despite the spike in COVID-19 deaths from the Victorian outbreak, there was ~no~ excess mortality during winter because the number of deaths directly attributable to influenza fell from a yearly average of ~900 to 42
Also interesting - despite lockdowns and restrictions, at worst only very minor increases in deaths due to diabetes, cancer, or CVD, and a modest reduction in deaths due to COPD (probably flu related)
Small note of caution - this is provisional data, which the ABS warns may only represent ~95% of the total, so the numbers may change slightly before being finalized
Anyway, this provides quite strong evidence against the idea that government restrictions are necessarily associated with large numbers of non-COVID deaths, at least in the short term. The long term is of course still an open question
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