The open-access database included reports from the Human Mortality Database — known as “the world’s leading scientific data resource on mortality in developed countries” — and the World Mortality Dataset, which researchers used to track excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to presenting excess death figures, the Dutch authors cited research showing negative health outcomes related to COVID-19 vaccination programs and lockdown measures.

The researchers called on government leaders and policymakers to “thoroughly investigate underlying causes of persistent excess mortality.”

The Telegraph — a prominent mainstream U.K. newspaper — today (ER: June 4) ran a front-page article on the study with the headline, “Covid vaccines may have helped fuel rise in excess deaths.”

Dr. Meryl Nass posted a photo of the article on Substack, writing, “The dam has broken.”

Earlier this year, Norwegian researchers published a peer-reviewed study in BMC Public Health, showing an increase in excess non-COVID-19 mortality — or deaths attributed to causes other than a COVID-19 infection — in Norway in 2021 and 2022. TrialSite News reported on the Norway study last week.

The study authors noted a “temporal concordance” between Norway’s increase in non-COVID-19 excess mortality and the country’s increase in mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.

Dr. Pierre Kory told The Defender, “This is unsurprising and totally in line with what we have argued is the effect of the mRNA vaccines.”

Kory — who has written numerous op-eds calling for an investigation into what’s causing excess deaths — said there are “numerous mechanisms of the spike protein used in the shots [that] cause endothelial damage and hypercoagulability [excessive blood clotting] leading to heart attacks, strokes, aortic aneurysms.”

“Other mechanisms increase the risk of cancer,” he said, “in particular the ubiquitous findings of DNA contamination of the vials with cancer-promoting sequences such as SV40.”

‘Every death needs to be acknowledged’

The Dutch team’s study on excess deaths in 47 countries showed that excess mortality in 2020 was documented in 41 of the 47 countries.

Over the next two years, that number increased to 42 and 43 countries in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Overall, there were 3,098,456 excess deaths from Jan. 1, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2022, with just over 1 million of those occurring in 2020.

“In 2021,” they wrote, “the year in which both containment [i.e., lockdown] measures and COVID-19 vaccines were used to address virus spread and infection, the highest number of excess deaths was reported: 1,256,942 excess deaths.”

They reported that in 2022 — “when most containment measures were lifted and COVID-19 vaccines were continued” — there were 808,392 excess deaths.

The authors pointed out that during the pandemic, politicians and the media emphasized “on a daily basis that every COVID-19 death mattered and every life deserved protection through containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines.”

“In the aftermath of the pandemic, the same morale should apply,” they said. “Every death needs to be acknowledged and accounted for, irrespective of its origin.”

The authors of the Dutch study called for government transparency in cause-of-death data so researchers can do “direct and robust analyses to determine the underlying contributors.”

This also means that autopsies need to be done to determine the exact reason for death, they added.

The Dutch authors noted that the data they analyzed may not have recorded all actual deaths because “countries may lack the infrastructure and capacity to document and account for all deaths.”

Record-keeping mishaps or delays may also cause deaths to go unrecorded.

Cardiovascular deaths driving non-COVID excess mortality in Norway

The Dutch authors’ findings were corroborated by the earlier Norwegian study on non-COVID-19 excess mortality in Norway from 2020 to 2022.

Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health analyzed death records in which a COVID-19 infection was not listed as the cause of death to discover the causes of non-COVID-19 excess deaths.

They used data from the Norwegian Cause of Death Registry, known for high data quality and reliability.

The Norwegian authors found “significant” excess mortality in 2021 and 2022 for all causes (3.7% and 14.5%), for cardiovascular diseases (14.3% and 22.0%), and for malignant tumors in 2022 (3.5%).

When discussing their findings, the authors noted that some people opposed COVID-19 mass vaccination campaigns “due to concerns about potential harmful effects of allegedly insufficiently tested vaccines.”

They noted that the uptick in non-COVID-19 excess deaths happened at the same time that most Norwegians had received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine — but they were careful to avoid outright stating a causal link between COVID-19 vaccines and excess deaths.

“From data available to us, it was not possible to compare excess mortality in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals,” they said.

They said preliminary analyses from the National Preparedness Register for COVID-19 in Norway did not show signs of increased mortality among vaccinated older people.

TrialSite News speculated that the study’s authors avoided suggesting that the surge in excess cardiovascular deaths could be tied to Norway’s mass vaccination program because they may have faced difficulty getting their work published.

The Norwegian authors said lockdowns may also have contributed to the increase in non-COVID-19 excess deaths.

“There has been concern that lockdowns have resulted in less use of health care, leading to diseases that otherwise would have been discovered remaining undiagnosed, possibly with increased mortality,” they wrote.

Studies need to be done to assess this possibility, they said.

“Researchers,” they added, “should also investigate whether the [lockdown] restrictions have resulted in deterioration of lifestyle factors, such as less physical activity, a less healthy diet and even social and mental health issues that influence mortality.”