In response to parliamentary questions, outgoing minister Hugo de Jonge says he is aware of the excess mortality since May 2021. This excess mortality has now risen to a surplus of approximately 5,000 unexplained deaths at the end of November (source). When we read his answers to the parliamentary questions, the minister ignores the months of July, August, September, October and November 2021. That is five of the seven months in the period to which the question refers. It is precisely in these months that excess mortality has risen sharply. The minister pretends to answer the question while referring to figures from March 2020 to June 2021. Of course, that was not what the question was about at all.
Answers to parliamentary questions from member Baudet (FvD) about excess mortality since May 2021 (2021Z18962, submitted 29 October 2021).
Question 1: Are you aware of the excess mortality reported by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) since May 2021?
I am aware of the excess mortality as reported by CBS since May 2021.
Question 2: What do you think is the explanation for this excess mortality?
CBS speaks of excess mortality when the observed number of deaths is higher than the expected number of deaths in the same period. On November 4. CBS published the mortality figures up to and including the second quarter of 2021. This shows that since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 to June 2021, a total of 31,384 people have died from COVID-19. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) states that excess mortality, i.e. the difference between the observed number and the expected number of deaths, is almost entirely caused by mortality from COVID-19.
Question 3: Do other countries show similar excess mortality?
An international comparison cannot be made properly. This is because there is no uniform method internationally for measuring excess mortality. Although international agreements have been made about measuring the number of COVID-19 deaths based on the cause of death, these figures are less up-to-date in many countries than in the Netherlands.
No idea about mortality rates
So it seems that the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport is not aware of an important indicator of Public Health: the current mortality – and that at the time of a circulating List A virus, draconian measures that have been issued on the gut feeling of a few experts and brand new medication that has yet to prove itself but is already being forced on all healthy and less healthy Dutch people.
If, on the other hand, the minister is aware of the mortality figures - and he says he is - then we have to guess at the reason for evasive answers. It is not for nothing that he refers to a completely different period than the one the question is about. Once again, the government is raising suspicion that there is something to hide, by coming up with misinformation and thus sketching a different reality than that which emerges from the current data.
The answers show neither interest in the health status of citizens, nor involvement in public health, nor understanding of real concerns about it.
No message to European monitoring
Furthermore, the minister claims that an international comparison cannot be made properly. However, there are public sources such as the European Mortality Monitor, which collected mortality rates from Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Germany (Berlin), Germany (Hesse), Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK (England), UK (Northern Ireland), UK (Scotland), UK (Wales) and Ukraine.
There are more of these sources and they all give the same irrefutable picture: the Netherlands is certainly not unique.
And another sideways movement
Then the minister tries to give another twist that distracts from the issue. He starts talking about the issue of cause-of-death registration, especially with regard to Covid-19 deaths. However, these are general (excess) mortality figures. The precise settlement with Covid mortality can lead to marginal differences that are only relevant in this context if the excess mortality is first recognized and investigated.
Furthermore, the minister says that the figures on causes of death and Covid mortality are less up-to-date in many countries than in the Netherlands. That is a meaningless and irrelevant remark, just as meaningless as the claim that the figures are indeed more up-to-date in many countries than in the Netherlands. The point is: again no answer to the question.
In short: it doesn't get any better. The policy is clearly not based on the current situation. Questions are not answered substantively, only in terms of form. They look away from reality. In this way, the government paints itself further and further into the corner: reprehensibility, mismanagement, joint and several liability are becoming more and more inevitable in this behavior. And it involves many thousands of human lives.
