Neoplasms are new and abnormal tissue growth. These can be cancerous or not. However, in this study, most of the deaths noted cancerous neoplasms as an underlying cause. “Most deaths are within the malignant neoplasm categories, while benign neoplasms are negligible,” the paper’s lead author, Carlos Alegria from Phinance Technologies, told The Epoch Times. Phinance Technologies is a data analytics company founded by Edward Dowd. ICD, also known as the International Classification of Diseases, is a set of codes representing various diseases, symptoms, abnormal health findings, and external causes of disease or injury. When a person dies, the certifying physician, medical examiner, or coroner will assign ICD codes to all the causes and conditions of death on the deceased person’s death certificate. From 2010 to 2019, the rate of neoplasm deaths among young Americans declined from 14 to 12.3 per 100,000 people. Beginning in 2020, the incidence of neoplasm deaths slightly declined, dropping to 12.2. Then, in 2021, deaths increased to 12.6 per 100,000 before rising to 12.7 per 100,000 in 2021 and 2022. There has also been an increase in excess mortality caused by neoplasms, according to the preprint. Excess mortality rates of neoplasms as an underlying cause increased from 1.7 percent in 2020 to 5.6 in 2021, then to 7.9 percent in 2022. “The results indicate that from 2021 a novel phenomenon leading to increased neoplasm deaths appears to be present in individuals aged 15 to 44 in the US,” the authors wrote. From 2010 to 2019, rates of excess deaths never exceeded minus 5 percent to 5 percent. However, in 2020, excess mortality of 15- to 44-year-olds reached 20 percent, with further increases to about 34 percent in 2021. In 2022, excess mortality declined to just over 18 percent, which was still “abnormally high,” the authors wrote. The
United States isn’t the only country where the authors have observed a rise in excess mortality caused by neoplasms. The authors’ prior work on mortality cases in the
United Kingdom returned similar results, though the rates were lower. Some of the increases in 2020 may have been due to limited access to diagnosis or treatment due to lockdowns. “However, the younger age group of 15 to 44 are not likely to be affected significantly by this factor, as the majority of
cancer screening is carried out in age groups over 45,” the authors wrote. They also noted that in 2020, there were few excess deaths in which neoplasms were implicated as an “underlying cause.” However, there was an abrupt increase in 2021 and 2022, which the authors regarded as “extreme events.” The authors elucidated possible links to the COVID-19 vaccine, introduced in 2021. “There have been several case reports of rapidly growing malignant neoplasms in humans following COVID-19 vaccine administration,” they wrote.