An update on the excess mortality in the UK in 2015

You’ll remember my previous article looking at the mortality data for 2015, and the intriguing (and concerning) spike in deaths in the early weeks of that year. I concluded the article by stating that it would be interesting to find out why that happened.

I am always keen to address a problem with more than one approach. I did two things:

1. I wrote to my MP to ask why this had happened. My MP duly replied by stating that he had passed my query to the Department of Health. I await further news.
2. I searched for this on Google.

My search led me to the Office of National Statistics, which publishes data on mortality every year. In the report for 2015, this spike in mortality was identified, and a thorough analysis undertaken.

You can find this report here.

My understanding of this report is that there was a flu epidemic for which the annual flu vaccine was not effective. This affected the 75+ age group, which resulted in the higher mortality. This information has been available for a while, and – annoying as it is – seems to vindicate our government’s indignation.

Let’s see what the Department of Health comes up with…