CSO says HSE cyber attack in May 2021 means the data published today on deaths for Q3 2022 isn’t comparable with previous quarters

CSO Vital Statistics for Q3 July-September published this morning confirm widespread speculations on social media that there would be an increase in the number of deaths compared to the same time period in the preceding years.

8,467 deaths were registered in Ireland in Quarter 3 2022. However the CSO says “the HSE cyber-attack affects comparability with previous quarters”.

A CSO press release says “Q2 and Q3 2021 is not comparable with previous and/or subsequent quarters, and therefore, care should be taken when comparing Q3 2022 and Q3 2021 figures.

Of the 8,467 deaths registered in quarter 3 2022,  4,395 were male and 4,072 were female. The quarter 3 2022 total is 3.7% more than the corresponding quarter of 2021 when 8,165 deaths were registered.

Diseases of the circulatory system:

Diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 2,343 deaths, or an annual rate of 1.8 per 1,000 population. Of these, 1,065 were due to ischaemic heart disease and 373 to cerebrovascular disease.

In Q3 2019 Diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 2,196 deaths, or an annual rate of 1.8 per 1,000 population

Malignant neoplasms (Cancer):

There were 2,522 deaths from malignant neoplasms. This is equivalent to an annual rate of 2.0 per 1,000 population.

In Q3 2019 There were 2,368 deaths from malignant neoplasms.  This is equivalent to an annual rate of 1.9 per 1,000 population

Diseases of the respiratory system:

Deaths from chronic lower respiratory disease numbered 400, pneumonia accounted for 197 deaths and 265 deaths resulted from all other respiratory diseases.

In Q3 Deaths from chronic lower respiratory disease numbered 372, pneumonia accounted for 214 deaths and 227 deaths resulted from all other respiratory diseases. 

Suicides

The 84 deaths from suicide recorded reflects a decrease of 46% from the same quarter of 2021. Of these suicide deaths, 80% (67) were male.

Infant and neonatal mortality

There were 56 infant deaths registered in quarter 3 2022 giving an infant mortality rate of 4.0 deaths per 1,000 live births, an increase of 0.9 on that recorded in quarter 3 of 2021. Neonatal deaths are deaths of infants at ages under 4 weeks. There were 44 neonatal deaths registered in quarter 3 2022, giving a neonatal mortality rate of 3.1 deaths per 1,000 live births, which is an increase of 0.7 from quarter 3 2021.

There were 46 infant deaths registered in quarter 3 2019 giving an infant mortality rate of 3.0 deaths

There appears to be a significant increase in the number of deaths published on RIP.ie described as ‘sudden’ or ‘unexpected’.

“Correlation does not imply causation”, yet the fact that Vital Statistics for Q1,2,3 2021 and 2022 corresponding to the rollout of the Covid 19 vaccine programme, all show a significant increase in the number of deaths compared to the same period in preceding years including the height of the pandemic in 2020.

We can expect very significant attempts by state and media in the next day or two to gloss over and explain away the significant increase in excess deaths.

https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-vs/vitalstatisticsthirdquarter2022/