The Chief Health Officer is now trying to claim the Covid vaccine reduced all cause mortality. I.e. deaths from other causes apart from Covid. This is despite the fact that deaths jumped from 162,000 to 172,000 in 2021 and to 190,000 in 2022. Seriously you just can’t make this stuff up.
When asked why deaths jumped they can’t give a straight answer. They are still looking into it. If they are still looking into it how they rule out the vaccines?
In 2021 there were only 300 more Covid deaths than 2020 so Covid can’t explain the rise in deaths.
It’s worth noting the jump in deaths occurred from May onwards, one month after the vaccine rollout.
They are just insulting our intelligence at this point. The truth is that they are lying.
Community Affairs Legislation Committee – 26/10/2023
Estimates – HEALTH AND AGED CARE PORTFOLIO
Department of Health and Aged Care
Senator RENNICK: Professor Kelly, in the last set of estimates you quoted a real-world study of 3.8 million people, where you claimed that the vaccine reduced sickness and hospitalisation. Yet these people were not studied, and autopsies weren’t performed on the deaths. The study was not randomised. Concerningly, the study’s conclusion was that it reduced all-cause mortality. I find that an incredible statement to make, given that deaths in Australia rose from 162,000 in 2020 to 172,000 in 2021, and to 190,000 in 2022. Do you still stand by the findings of that study?
Prof. Kelly : That study was performed by the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance. It has now been peer-reviewed and published. What I talked about last time was just a pre-print. Dr Gould might assist with some of the answers. To your specific question: yes, I do still stand by the remarks that I made.
Senator RENNICK: You think the COVID vaccine reduced all-cause mortality in regard to cancer and other things as well?
Prof. Kelly : I am not sure if the all-cause mortality was itemised by particular causes, but all-cause mortality decreased; that is correct.
Senator RENNICK: All-cause mortality didn’t decrease. It increased by 10,000, just in 2021.
Prof. Kelly : There are reasons for that, which I will pass to Dr Gould for.
Dr Gould: The study you are referring to found no evidence of increased all-cause mortality associated with COVID vaccines. As you said, it did find a statistically insignificant negative relationship between vaccines and all-cause mortality. It was not statistically significant. In terms of potential medical reasons, Professor Kelly might want to go into that. There may be a relationship with undiagnosed COVID being a potential contributor to all-cause mortality. That is one of the reasons which is listed in the paper.
Senator RENNICK: You are saying that undiagnosed COVID was the cause of the increase of 10,000, from 162,000 to 172,000 in 2021?
Dr Gould: That is then a separate issue. It is important to point out that the study showed that the people who had vaccines were relatively less likely to die of COVID than people who did not have vaccines. That was the key finding of the paper. That was a relative comparison between cohorts of people who had and had not been vaccinated. That in itself doesn’t relate to overall mortality rates.
Senator RENNICK: That is what I am trying to get to: what caused the increase in 2021 of 10,000 deaths? Why was there an increase of 10,000 deaths, given that COVID wasn’t in the community? I am happy to table this document.
CHAIR: You can circulate it. The committee can then make a decision about whether to table it once we have verified its source. Mr Comley, are these questions best placed in whole-of-portfolio?
Mr Comley: We seem to have the relevant people here. It is possible they should be in outcome 1. It is in your hands, Chair, whether you would like to do it now, since we have the people here.
CHAIR: If the agency is comfortable, we can proceed. Senator Rennick, I remind you to try to place your questions correctly. Do you have a document indicating where you got this information?
Senator RENNICK: It was the ABS all-cause mortality statistics.
CHAIR: The committee will need to take a moment to verify the information you have given us, Senator Rennick.
Senator RENNICK: You can take the numbers: 172,000 versus 162,000. Interestingly, the largest increases in deaths on a relative percentage basis were in Queensland and Western Australia, which didn’t have any COVID in the community throughout 2021. The ABS mortality figures jumped significantly in May, about one month after the vaccine rollout stepped up. What was the cause of this significant increase in deaths in 2021, notwithstanding that COVID wasn’t in the community throughout 2021 until late December?
Dr Gould: Before I hand to Professor Kelly on potential reasons, just noting a temporal correlation doesn’t imply any kind of causation, so we have to be careful.
Senator RENNICK: I accept that, but we had an actual increase. We are not talking about a model. We are talking about real-world deaths. Real-world deaths increased by a significant amount. COVID wasn’t in community that year.
Dr Gould: We would acknowledge that the ABS statistics show in both 2021 and 2022 that there was higher than normal mortality. That’s part of their report. The most recent publication from the ABS covers all of 2022 as well as some of 2023.
Senator RENNICK: I accept 2022 is harder to analyse because COVID was in the community and they’d jumped by another 20,000 and went to 190,000. I just want to focus on 2021, when we had a clear period where there was no COVID in the community but we had the vaccine rollout. There’s a very strong temporal correlation between the vaccine rollout and the increase in deaths. Do you accept that there’s a strong correlation?
Dr Gould: In terms of the numbers that you’re quoting I believe that’s correct, that there was an increase during that period, but again I would reject the temporal correlation actually is—
Senator RENNICK: It’s within your right to do that. Given that there was a significant increase in actual deaths, what has the Health Department done to analyse why those deaths jumped in 2021? It was a six per cent increase. That’s a sigma six event?
Dr Gould: We’ve been looking at the numbers across the whole pandemic. It’s important not just to focus on 2021. The ABS does a good job of listing causes of death and major contributors. They tend to have remained the usual suspects in terms of heart disease, dementia, diabetes and cancer, but we did see in 2022 significant deaths as a result of COVID. I think it is worth saying that of the roughly 20,000 excess deaths that the ABS reported in 2022 roughly 13,000 were either people dying from COVID or deaths associated with COVID. So about 20,000—
