A research group of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare statistically analyzed changes in the number of deaths nationwide up to September last year to investigate whether deaths related to the new coronavirus were overlooked, and the number of deaths increased significantly. It was announced that there was no such effect.
This analysis is being carried out by a research group of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare created by the University of Tokyo and the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.
Infectious disease epidemics can result in deaths from other illnesses due to indirect effects other than the actual reported deaths.
In order to find out if there are any such deaths that may have been overlooked, the research group examines how much the actual number of deaths exceeded the number of deaths statistically estimated from past data "excessive deaths" I analyzed it by the method.
As a result, in the nine months to September last year, the number of excess deaths due to all causes of death other than the new coronavirus was 1094 to 9243, which is significantly higher than the excess deaths of the same period, 2054 to 20,1982. There was no increase.
In addition, analysis by major causes of death did not show a significant difference from the average year, indicating that there was a tendency for fewer deaths than usual due to respiratory illnesses.
Professor Masahiro Hashizume of the University of Tokyo, who conducted the analysis, said, "It is unlikely that the new coronavirus had a significant effect on the fluctuations in the number of deaths in the current analysis. We would like to proceed with the analysis in more detail in the future." I am.