Just a quick update on Taiwan Deaths. 2024 closed down from 2022 and 2023 but still 13.5% over 2019-2021 average.
They no longer report COVID or Vax numbers so no analysis on why the high death counts is possible. At least its trending down
They just released February numbers. 21,888 deaths. Ouch.
https://www.moi.gov.tw/english/News_Content.aspx?n=7627&s=326192
This is the highest monthly death count ever but due to the Lunar New Year holidays taking January or February data alone is problematic , as it’s likely many January deaths were carried over to February. So I combine them for any meaningful analysis.
The 2 months totals are high, 20% above the 2019-2021 average, and about as high as 2023 and 2024. The Pandemic really only broke open in April-May 2022 so Jan-Feb 2022 was about normal.
Like the US Taiwan has suffered a tough flu season and its been a cooler than normal winter (most homes have no heating and it can get to 50 deg F), so I suppose that explains some of it.
They only report 212 flu deaths but they probably aren’t counting those whose primary cause of death was other reasons, who may have died earlier because of the flu. You can see from the chart that 2018 had quite a spike that was probably due to a bad flu season as well.
Thats all. Hopefully this is my last report as I expect the declining death trend to continue after the flu season is over with.