The statement
Despite COVID getting the greatest media attention of any event since World War II, the latest data from a respected statistics website shows that, globally, the number of deaths from all causes for 2020 was no higher than expected, given previous years’ totals. In addition, the annual world death rate per one thousand in population has been steadily declining since 1950, from 20 per thousand in 1950, to 7.6 per thousand in 2020, the same as in 2019. …
The data shows that total world deaths from all causes held steady at about 58.8 million per year since 2019. In 2017 the total was 58.7 million. If anything, global deaths were lower than expected last year, due to aging Baby Boomer demographics, which accounts for a slight, normal rise in deaths in most years.
In global terms, if excess deaths are the criteria, there was no pandemic.
The source
Corona Virus News, 9 June 2021
My take on it
“Lies, damned lies and statistics” ?
In this whole episode the story-telling has certainly been confounded by the choice of metrics. Total deaths, and death rate, are very high-level measures, less vulnerable to manipulation. If something substantially out of the ordinary is happening, it should show up here.
Apparently there isn’t.
Of course this report flies in the face of the prevailing narrative. For which reason, the likely first reaction to it, is disbelief. But for some, it may be the trigger to some critical thinking. And that can’t be a bad thing.