Why it's time to Investigate Excess Deaths in England and Wales

Has anyone noticed the sustained rise in deaths? Why we need causal investigations based on signals in the data.

The ONS weekly reports on registered deaths in England and Wales have been above average for most of the last three months. In the week ending 29 July, there were 11,013 deaths, which is 18% above the five-year average.

The following plot is a bit busy as it goes back to 1993. It differs from the above figure as it calculates the death rates per 100,000…