TUESDAY’S shocking excess death figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that we have not one but two pandemics in the UK.
One is the Covid pandemic, which can be seen clearly in the spike in deaths in hospitals and care homes in spring 2020, before deaths from this seasonal virus drop dramatically to below average in the summer and rise again in hospitals with its return in winter.
The other is the hidden pandemic caused by Covid policies, which has taken place in the home and shows no variation with the seasons. Excess deaths in the home have been consistently above average every week from March onwards, with a small rise during the spring lockdown.
The death toll shows the figures split almost evenly: around half of the total excess deaths for 2020 occurred in the home and showed little variation from summer to winter.
We have been warning of this tsunami of excess deaths from Covid policies for months. It’s caused a deadly cocktail of fear, mental health problems, and the denial of vital services to patients in urgent need of life-saving care. For example:
- One in three cancer patients say their treatment has been affected and 70 per cent say their mental health has suffered in consequence. Cancer Research UK says cancer screening was cancelled for 3million people and there has been a 39 per cent drop in the seven key diagnostic tests for cancer between March and July – equivalent to 3.2million fewer tests in England alone. h
- The British Heart Foundation says that excess death from heart disease has risen with a disturbing 13 per cent rise amongst those under 60 even as Covid was declining in May and June.
- A Yonder poll in December revealed that 7 out of 10 people in the UK are now seriously worried about the mental health of themselves or someone close. Problem drinking – a killer – has doubled and now affects around 9million people. Experts report that suicide amongst young people is rising. Domestic abuse rose during the spring lockdown.
- A Bristol University professor says that the lockdowns of 2020 will cost 560,000 lives in the UK ‘because of the deep and prolonged recession they will cause’.The Government’s own prediction last summer was that more than 200,000 will die as a result of the first lockdown alone (ONS July 2020). It has refused to provide an update showing the additional impact of the tiers and lockdowns since.
- Government figures show that even during the Spring peak, restrictions played a huge role in excess deaths. Covid killed 25,000 people but restrictions caused at least 16,000 unnecessary deaths, as 6,000 people died because they didn’t attend A&E through fear and 10,000 people died in care homes because they could not access critical care in hospitals.
- The UN World Food Programme has warned that 270,000,000 people face starvation as a result of the global impact of lockdowns and restrictions. This alone makes the response to Covid the single most lethal policy that governments have ever adopted, killing many times more than Mao, Stalin and Hitler combined.
Now we can see the combined impact of all this: it’s clear in the new figures and it’s a timebomb – the excess death from fear and restrictions will only grow while current policies continue.
Before the lockdowns, 9,000 people had waited more than a year for operations. Now it’s close to 200,000. These are not life-threatening conditions, but cause huge pain and misery. Worse, routine problems become life-threatening if left untreated. The problems we already have mean that the NHS will be in crisis for years.
The excess death figures have seen hysterical calls for even tougher lockdowns. But that would only make these problems worse. As experts have been warning from the outset, these toxic lockdowns merely postpone problems, they don’t fix them. By prolonging the crisis and extending the period over which deaths take place, they are creating a disaster. We’ll see another easing over the summer, but that will be blamed for worse problems in the NHS by the autumn. As Government experts are already warning, vaccination will not end this – new strains and new pressures will see the deadly cycle continue for years unless we find a better way.
We’re spending billions on failed policies which have only made the pandemic worse. It’s time for our leaders to acknowledge and address the timebomb of untreated conditions and economic devastation. These are now a terrifying threat to the health and welfare of the UK in themselves.
Recovery first published this in a press release on their website https://timeforrecovery.org/excessdeathsscandal/
