Vermont Cardiac Primary Cause Deaths

(Sarcasm is OFF for this post.)

In an earlier post, I described a procedure for importing Vermont death certificate data into a MySQL database. In a subsequent post, I looked at cardiac-related deaths, where heart problems were mentioned in any of the five cause fields. (The SQL query searched for the string “cardi” in Cause A/B/C/D and Other Contributing.) Here is that graph again:

Now let’s look at deaths where cardiac problems are mentioned in Cause A, without looking at the other causes. That should give us those deaths where cardiac problems are the primary cause. Here is that graph:

The trend in this second graph shows a more serious rise in 2021 than in the first graph. It shows that deaths due primarily to cardiac problem are much higher in 2021 than they were even in 2020. Something happened in 2021 to cause this alarming trend, a trend that is baffling scientists. It could be napping, snow shoveling, excitement watching the new Avatar movie, climate change – we just don’t know!