Wroclaw / Poland 9/21/2022
Eurostat is the statistical office of the European Union, based in Luxembourg (LU). It publishes official, harmonised statistics on the European Union and the euro area, offering a comparable, reliable and objective portrayal of Europe’s society and economy. This is what Eurostat writes about itself.
According to this definition, here we find official statistics for all countries of the European Union and EFTA. I will not repeat myself to describe the excellent opportunities to misuse statistics for political manipulation.
I encountered this problem myself during my professional life in the 90’s as a developer of computer applications based on statistical data. Although I was by definition obliged to keep confidential all information to which I had access as a result of my job, when I received statistical data that had not yet been published, the client also reminded me of the confidentiality of this data.
I have never dealt with data manipulation for fraudulent purposes – although I could not rule out the possibility of such manipulation – in Austria the very moment of publication of selected statistical data was – and probably still is – treated as an important element of the political struggle.
But back to Eurostat and its statistics. Interesting statistics on excess deaths in the European Union and EFTA countries appeared here on Friday. This stat, titled Excess mortality hits +16%, highest 2022 value so far.
This was the highest value on record so far in 2022, amounting to around 53 000 additional deaths in July this year compared with the monthly averages for 2016-2019. The excess mortality rate was +3% in July 2020 (10 000 excess deaths) and +6% in July 2021 (21 000 excess deaths).
The statistics presented compare EU mortality data for the same month of previous years.
According to weekly death statistics, around 1.5 million additional deaths were recorded in EU and EFTA countries from January 2020 to the end of July 2022, compared to the average for the same period 2016-2019.
The first two strong mortality peaks occurred in March-May and October-December 2020. I believe this is the result of the seasonal influenza – renamed COVID 19 – the complete lockdown of the health service, isolation, the spread of fear, the mask requirement and of social distancing – i.e. inability to show affection to loved ones.
On the other hand, none of the above factors justify such a large increase in mortality in July 2022. How does this explain this phenomenon? You can answer this question yourself. As a tip, I encourage you to read “Rescuing” residents of nursing homes.
Author of the article: Marek Wojcik