In 2022, Britain still recorded thousands more deaths (‘excess’ deaths) than would be expected from data for previous years, even after adjusting for an ageing population. This was despite Covid-19 deaths being relatively low compared to earlier in the pandemic. In the week to 4 November 2022, fewer than half the excess deaths (about 700) involved Covid-19, meaning that other factors are involved. While medical experts continue to investigate the underlying causes, the British government’s refusal to consistently implement basic public health measures, in favour of ‘living with Covid’, is at the heart of this continuing tragedy. The working class is paying the price for the capitalist government putting profits ahead of public health, with the result that long-term harm has been done to people’s health.
The overall cumulative ‘excess’ deaths compared to the five-year average for 2016-2019 and 2021 up to November 2022 is over 26,500. (Office for National Statistics (ONS)). It is on a trajectory to reach 5% of the annual average by the end of 2022. This means that over the last three years there has been a cumulative excess of around 25% of one full year’s mortality, a shocking and sobering statistic. England and Wales recorded a total of 137,447 excess deaths between the start of the pandemic (March 2020) and June 2022.
Deaths due to Covid-19 (mentioned anywhere on the death certificate) in England have fallen from a high of 79 per 100,000 people in January 2022 to 17 per 100,000 people in September. Covid-19 was only the 12th cause of death in England that month. However, in November 2022, there were still over 700 deaths per week in the UK ‘involving’ Covid-19 (ie where Covid-19 was the underlying cause), or 5.3% of all UK weekly deaths. Death rates are also deviating from the usual seasonal pattern of winter spikes in the pre-pandemic era: they are consistently at winter levels, even in the summer.
There is mounting evidence of Covid-19 leading to later cardiovascular problems. A case of Covid-19 leads to increased incidence of blood clots up to 49 weeks after diagnosis, according to a 2020 England and Wales study published in the journal Circulation, with the risk of these potentially fatal vascular events higher after hospitalisation as against non-hospitalisation, and higher for black and Asians people compared to white people. Two Nature Medicine studies published in 2022 show increased risk of both cardiovascular and neurological conditions such as strokes, even 12 months after a Covid-19 infection. They include ‘mild’ non-hospitalised cases. With an estimated two million cases of Long Covid, the legacy of the government’s prioritisation of profit-making over proper public health measures during the pandemic weighs heavily on the working class.
Charles Chinweizu
