Lockdown Now!

The case for shutting you all up in your homes.

Photo by Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash

Dear Reader,

Here is a statistic that might surprise you: 

More people died in October of this year than in either of the Covid-plagued Octobers of 2020 and 2021. Excess mortality in October 2022 was incredibly high - 19 percent above the average for the previous four years. Or, put another way, 15,000 more people died than would have been expected based on a four-year average that included two (!) pandemic years. (Source: The National Statistics Office)

In November, there were similarly high numbers of deaths. Although these were more in line with those seen in 2020 and 2021, they were up 18 percent on 2018.

While there is not much direct evidence for why this has been happening, it seems fairly clear that it is related to the fact that the flu and other respiratory illnesses have struck at an unusually early point in the winter.

"I think the most obvious explanation is that we're seeing a relatively early wave of infectious disease this year,” Jonas Schö…