Friday’s release: “Te Whatu Ora Are Hiding the Alarming Figures—a Tsunami of Illness” has raised a lot of questions. What exactly is to blame for the overwhelming rise in illness across multiple categories?
Recap: Leaked data from the Wellington Region shows the number of heart attacks resulting in hospitalisation has increased by 83%. Hospitalisation for myocarditis up by one third (33% increase). Miscarrriage, stillbirths, and strokes all up by a quarter (25% increase). Acute kidney injury (AKI) up by 40%.
There are well over one million papers relating to Covid published so far. When compared to each other, many of these offer conflicting conclusions or suffer from methodological limitations. Therefore it is becoming increasingly necessary to monitor up-to-date data. The rise in hospital admissions across many illness categories in Wellington Region will have multiple causes. The question is what are the weightings of the potential causal factors? These can only be adequately evaluated through analysis of current data.
The Hatchard Report and others have been calling for the release of relevant data for almost two years now. Missing data includes vax status at death and on admission to hospital by age and disease category. Without this, no adequate assessment of the relative importance of Covid infection and vaccination can be made. The main thrust of many articles at the Hatchard Report is to request the release of this data for independent scrutiny.
Here are some of the probing questions we have received following our summary of the data leak and our answers:
Question 1: I am concerned that your assumptions around the analysis of data are not scientifically based and you are pointing to the COVID 19 vaccines as being THE reason why the deaths have increased. You failed to look at a number of other probable reasons for this (see 2-5 below for suggested alternative explanations).
Answer: This paper links elevated death rates in Europe to Covid vaccination. It calculates that a one percentage point increase in 2021 vaccination uptake was associated with a monthly mortality increase in 2022 by 0.105 percent (95% CI, 0.075-0.134). A very large effect.
Question 2. Is Long Covid at fault? This paper states ‘Long COVID is an often debilitating illness that occurs in at least 10% of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections’.
Answer: Some commentators want to blame prior Covid infection and subsequent incidence of Long Covid for the entire problem. There are two central questions here. ‘How much different is the effect of Long Covid compared to post influenza?’ and ‘Does Long Covid itself have multiple causes?’ A bombshell Norwegian paper published subsequent to the Nature article referenced above found no significant association between prior covid infection and long covid among adolescents. This substack article contains a discussion and a link to the paper itself. This finding suggests that many of the symptoms of Long Covid may have multiple causes including the effect of lockdowns, Covid vaccination, and prior health conditions.
Question 3. Delays in going to see a doctor, particularly under the lockdowns. According to the NZ Herald, this meant that some cancers, for instance, became far less treatable as a result.
Answer: Delays in going to a doctor during lockdown will have certainly had a serious effect on cancer outcomes, but not on long term cancer incidence rates. This effect should be disappearing by now, but it isn’t. The observed effect size is too large to be explained by delayed doctor visits and scans, see my discussion here.
Question 4. Aging baby boomers will be overrepresented for years to come in the death rates annually, they’re starting to die off as is the natural step at the end of a long life, ref: paper.
Answer: The paper on death rates cited is out of date and statistically irrelevant to the very high death rates we are now seeing which alarmingly include working age cohorts. Reference Edward Dowd’s book on this point.
Question 5. You might also include the fact that the whole health system is breaking down, we hear this all the time from nurses working at hospitals. This will be impacting health outcomes in a multitude of ways, as I’m sure you would agree.
Answer: I agree that the health service is breaking down, but why is it doing so? We have a chicken and egg situation, work loads have increased dramatically but why did they do so in the first place? The increased rates of illness came first. Remember we had Covid vaccination in NZ before we had Covid.
Question 6. I thought you always verified your data through official channels. How can you be sure these leaked figures are reliable?
Answer: The detail contained in the leaked information is notable. I have also received independent information confirming the size of the increases in illness from insurance industry insiders. One source from a very large health insurer reports health claims have risen from 4-500 per day to 700+ per day, a 50+% increase. Another insurance insider reports that claims for rare or unusual illness categories are inexplicably rising. At this time I have no reason to doubt the leaked data.
Question 7. Is there any other data pointing to a causal connection between vaccination and elevated illness rates?
Answer: Troponin is a type of protein found in the muscles of your heart. Troponin isn’t normally found in the blood. When heart muscles become damaged, troponin is sent into the bloodstream. As heart damage increases, greater amounts of troponin are released in the blood. Leaked data shows troponin tests conducted on men and women shortly after Covid vaccination in the Wellington Region found high levels in 4% of men and 1.4% of women. There were other concerning levels of biological markers of illness reported in the leaked data, these included markers of cancer and blood clots.
An 83% increase in hospitalisations for heart attacks should be a statistical impossibility
An 83% increase in hospitalisations for heart attacks should be a statistical impossibility, but it seems it is happening. Cardiovascular events impact longevity outcomes. Cardiovascular disease is already the leading cause of death in New Zealand accounting for around 10,000 deaths per year. I can’t imagine why we are not reading about the increases in mainstream media. This must be impacting families all over NZ. I can’t imagine why the government and medical authorities are turning a blind eye.
It is Not Scientifically Tenable for Te Whatu Ora to Project a Facade of Normality
One of the most alarming take homes from the leaked data is the increasing rate of illness year by year—it is steadily getting worse. The authorities are evidently aware of this, but they are doggedly sticking to a ‘nothing to see here’ narrative. Nor are they doing the basic research to assess whether this is disproportionately affecting the vaccinated or the unvaccinated.
New Zealanders are falling ill and dying in record numbers unaware of a possible connection to Covid vaccination. Te Whatu Ora holds data pointing in this direction, but they are looking the other way and keeping quiet. Worse, they are encouraging people to get more vaccine doses. Withholding concerning data from public view and comment is reckless, inexplicable, and completely disregards public health and safety.
