The deaths of thousands of people cannot be regarded as good news, so I apologise for the title to the article, which seemed apposite purely in the context of the general point I am seeking to make in this little series of three articles – namely, the mainstream media are not interested in anything which distracts from an alarmist narrative.

Over the last few days the usual suspects (basically the Daily Sceptic website, the Spectator and GB News) have picked up on Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests made to the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the responses made by the ONS to these requests, with regard to covid deaths in the UK. So far as I am aware, the mainstream media have not gone anywhere near this story.

Deaths from COVID-19 with no other underlying causes

This is the title to the page on the ONS websiteⁱ from as long ago as 16^th December 2021, in response to a FOIA request, which asked quite simply:

Please can you advise on deaths purely from covid with no other underlying causes.

The response by the ONS referred the questioner to an exisiting ONS database (Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Walesⁱⁱ) but nevertheless went on to provide a breakdown of the information requested, as follows:

Please see below for death registrations for 2020 and 2021 (provisional) that were due to COVID-19 and were recorded without any pre-existing conditions, England and Wales.

2020:9400 (0-64: 1549 / 65 and over: 7851)

2021 Q1: 6483 (0-64: 1560/ 65 and over: 4923)

2021 Q2: 346 (0-64: 153/ 65 and over: 193)

2021 Q3: 1142 (0-64: 512/ 65 and over: 630)

In other words, just 17,371 people died of Covid in England and Wales up to the end of September 2021 where COVID-19 was the only cause of death recorded on the death certificate. This contrasts dramatically with other official figures for covid deaths over the same timescale – 148,536 where covid was mentioned as a cause of death somewhere on the death certificate; 126,384 deaths within 28 days of a positive covid test; and 117,247 excess deaths, as recorded by the ONS.

COVID-19 deaths and autopsies Feb 2020 to Dec 2021

This is the title to the ONS pageⁱⁱⁱ dealing with its response to another FOIA request, with the information made public a week ago, on 17^th January 2022. This request was slightly more involved:

Please supply deaths caused solely by covid 19, where covid is the only cause of death listed on the death certificate, broken down by age group and gender between feb 2020 up to and including dec 2021.

Please supply the number of autopsies carried out on those where covid was the only cause stated.

As regards the second part of the request, the ONS replied: “We do not hold analysis on the number of post-mortems completed.”

As for the first part of the request, they replied with a table detailing the “Number of deaths where COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned on the death certificate, 1 February 2020 to 31 December 2021, by sex and age group, England and Wales”.

Although I note that this information also relates to England and Wales only, omitting Scotland and Northern Ireland, nevertheless the figure staggered me: 6,183.

Not surprisingly, the deaths listed in these figures were heavily skewed towards the elderly, with 520 men and 971 women in the age group 90+ comprising 24.1% of the total. 470 men and 533 women were in the age group 85-89, and they comprised another 16.2% of the total. 492 men and 402 women were in the age group 80-84, comprising another 14.5% or thereabouts, so that those aged 80 and over represented 54.8% of all covid deaths in England and Wales to the end of 2021 where Covid-19 was the only cause mentioned on the death certificate.

8 deaths fell into this category for the age group 0-24, and 103 for the age group 25-39.

Conclusion

First of all, every one of those deaths is an individual tragedy, and I do not make light of the numbers.

Secondly, it would be all too easy to make an inferential leap that would almost certainly be unjustified, to the effect that something like 90% of “covid deaths” were not “covid deaths” at all. In each case where the deceased had comorbidities and/or other causes were mentioned on the death certificate, it may well be the case that covid-19 was a real contributory factor in their demise, inasmuch as the underlying health condition might not have led to death without the additional impact of covid-19 on their bodily systems. There is much that the blunt statistics simply do not tell us.

Thirdly, however, this information does suggest that the official statistics suggesting that covid-19 has killed anywhere between 150,000 and 175,000 people in the UK to date may well be considerably over-stated. At the very least, these information releases suggest the need for detailed investigation, and it is to be hoped that any official inquiry into Covid-19 in the UK will delve into these matters.

Finally, why have the mainstream media shown absolutely no interest in the revelation of this extraordinary information?

Endnotes

i https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/deathsfromcovid19withnootherunderlyingcauses

ii https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/preexistingconditionsofpeoplewhodiedduetocovid19englandandwales

iii https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/covid19deathsandautopsiesfeb2020todec2021