“I think everyone wants to know,” Shepard said when asked by interim Liberal leader Roger Melanson. Melanson was asking for an updated Statistics Canada report on Thursday, which showed that an estimated 4,599 people died in the province in the last 25 weeks of 2021, 886 more than the long-term average for that time of year after the adjustment. for population growth and aging. This chart from Statistics Canada showing the weekly death toll in New Brunswick for 8 years was published this week. Shows how much higher than normal deaths in New Brunswick increased in the second half of 2021. (Statistics Canada) It’s a 23.9 percent higher-than-normal mortality rate, the highest “over-the-counter” death rate among provinces at the time, ahead of other high rates released by British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta. “We all want to know what happened last fall,” Melanson said. Shepard agreed.
“It’s a question the New Brunswickers need to answer, Mr President, and I assure the caretaker leader that this will happen,” he said.

Deaths from covid

New Brunswick officially recorded just 114 deaths from COVID during the 25-week period under control. Academics such as Kimberlyn McGrail of the University of British Columbia and Tara Moriarty of the University of Toronto have raised the possibility that unusually high death rates in counties that do not match coronavirus deaths could mean that deaths caused by the virus. On Thursday, Moriarty said that a marked increase in New Brunswick deaths in the midst of a major COVID epidemic in the last five weeks of 2021 almost certainly indicates that COVID-19 deaths were occurring, but were not recorded. Tara Moriarty is an infectious disease specialist and researcher at the University of Toronto. He says the fact that COVID-19 infections and unexplained deaths increased simultaneously in New Brunswick in 2021 is a sign that they are linked. (Lisa Xing / CBC) “The overlap is almost perfect over time. This is a really important indication that a lot of it is likely to be related to COVID,” Moriarty said. “The level of excessive mortality in New Brunswick during this period is huge. And if it does not kill people from COVID, what the hell is it?” Sefard said Friday that she thought she was “afraid” of Moriarty. But he accepted the position of Moriarty and Melanson that answers were needed for what killed so many in 2021. “I agree with the leader of the opposition, Mr. President, and a decision has been made by the Department of Health that it will complete an over-death analysis as soon as all 2021 reported deaths are coded with the Statistics Canada,” Shephard said.

Prime Minister is worried

Prime Minister Blaine Higgs also said he found the rise in deaths “obviously more worrying” and vowed to look into the matter. The interim leader of the New Brunswick Liberals, Roger Melanson, has won the agreement from Health Secretary Dorothy Shepard and Prime Minister Blaine Higgs that the unexplained high death toll in New Brunswick in 2021 will cause anxiety. (Archive photo by Jacques Poitras / CBC) “If there are more research requirements, more information is needed. We will move on to get what we can,” Higgs said. It was a distinct change since Melanson asked about the same issue in the legislature in May and then again last week. Shephard was then accused of “hinting” at government offenses by asking for excessive deaths. “The member is hinting that something is wrong,” Shephard said during a question-and-answer session on June 1.
New Brunswick reported 886 more deaths than normal in the last 25 weeks of 2021. Many came during the COVID-19 epidemics, but were not classified as COVID-19 deaths. The province promises to find out why. (Kiichiro Sato / Associated Press) “He has to clean up, Mr President. I do not understand where he is going with this.” Statistics Canada monitors deaths in each province each month during the COVID-19 pandemic and compares them to what would be expected in a normal year, in an effort to detect the “excessive mortality” caused by both directly and indirectly.