Australia was recently number one in the world for median per capita wealth. However, presently about 100,000 Australians die preventably each year from life-style choice and political choice reasons. Of these an estimated 23,000 die from poverty. Yet these horrible realities are effectively ignored by rich Australia that is blindly committed to neoliberalism that demands maximum freedom for the smart and advantaged to endlessly exploit for private profit.
8 years ago I wrote: “One can estimate that 81,000 Australians die preventably each year, and over 1 million have died thus since the US Government’s false-flag 9-11 atrocity (3,000 killed) as compared to only 6 Australian deaths by terrorists (none Muslim) in the last 36 years. Yet the major Australian parties, the currently ruling Coalition and Opposition Labor (aka the Lib-Labs or Liberal-Laborals) have committed $125 billion to the Islamophobic War on Terror and killing 10 million Muslims abroad rather than keeping 1 million Australians alive at home. Australian state terrorism indeed.” [1].
The 2014 analysis provided estimates of annual Australian preventable deaths totalling 81,000 per year and about 1 million since 2001, the annual preventable mortality breakdown (with some overlaps) from “life-style choice” and “political choice” reasons being as follows: (1) 26,000 (adverse hospital events), (2) 17,000 (obesity-related), (3) 15,500 (smoking-related), (4) 10,000 (carbon burning pollution-derived), (5) 2,000 (avoidable Indigenous Australian deaths), (6) 5,600 (alcohol-related), (7) 2,100 suicides), (8) 1,400 (road deaths), (9) 630 (opiate drug-related deaths annually with 570 annually linked to US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry), and (10) 300 (homicides) [1].
It is now late 2022, and it is obviously useful to update these figures, and consider new contributors (notably Covid-19) to preventable mortality as set out below (noting some overlaps).
(A). Annual preventable deaths in Australia in circa 2020 (annual preventable deaths in brackets).
(1). Obesity-related (24,000).
WhatASleep (2022): “Obesity statistics in Australia show that the weight crisis costs the country $11.8 billion in food and medical expenses. 140 premature deaths happen each day in Australia due to obesity-related illnesses. Australia ranks as the 5th highest OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development country) for its obesity rates, falling short behind the USA… 14.56 million Australians are overweight or obese – this works out at 57.30% of the country’s entire population. Simply put: One in two Aussie is overweight or obese” [2]. 140 per day x 365.25 years = 51,000 obesity-related deaths annually. However, according to the University of Southern California (USC) (2020): “Nearly one in five deaths of African Americans and Caucasians age 40 to 85 is attributed to obesity, a rate that is increasing across generations” [3]. Applying this to Australia, we have 0.2 x 119,200 annual deaths = 24,000 annual obesity-related deaths. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2021): “In 2018, 38% of the burden of disease [about 50% each fatal and non-fatal overall] could have been prevented by reducing or avoiding exposure to the modifiable risk factors examined in this study. The risk factors contributing the most burden in 2018 were tobacco use (8.6%), overweight (including obesity) (8.4%), followed by dietary risks (5.4%), high blood pressure (5.1%), and alcohol use (4.5%)” [4].
(2). Smoking-related (20,000).
The Australian National Drug Research Institute (2019): “In the 12 months (financial year 2015/16) there were 20,032 deaths from smoking-related causes in Australia and there were about 1.7 million smoking-related hospital inpatient episodes.. The total [annual] cost of smoking in Australia is $136.9 billion” [5].
(3). Covid-19 (12,000).
Covid-19 –associated deaths in Australia have totalled 14,820 (1 March 2020-21 September 2022), for an average of 5,400 per year for the whole period [6 ]. However there was a small peak in August 2020, another peak in October 2021 and then a succession of 10-20 times bigger peaks in January 2022, June 2022, and July 2022 (vaccination in Australia commenced in February 2021). The annual Covid-19 death rate so far in 2022 has been 12,100 per year [7]. 99% of these Covid-19 deaths have been avoidable – thus the “Covid-19 deaths per million of population” is presently 571 for Australia as compared to 4 for China [8]. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) (2022): “The number (and rates) of deaths increased with increasing age; there were no deaths among those aged under 30 and approximately 2% of all COVID-19 deaths were among those aged 30–59, whereas 59% deaths occurred among those aged 85 and over” [9] i.e. 98% of all Australian Covid-19 deaths have been of 60 years and over people. The Australian Covid-19 deaths were 98% of 60-plus people and were 99% avoidable i.e. Australia has suffered a Gerocide through “let-it-rip” policies for which the governing politicians must be held responsible. According to WSWS (2020): “The WSWS continues to receive statements supporting Dr David Berger, an Australian physician and dedicated zero-COVID advocate who is being threatened with deregistration by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) over his social media condemnations of the government’s “let it rip” coronavirus policies” [10]. A number of doctors, including some with a prominent public profile, have written an open letter to Australian Federal and State health ministers protesting the maltreatment of Dr David Berger and defending the vital free speech of doctors [11].
(4). Medical error (12,000).
Johns Hopkins Medicine (2016): “10 percent of all U.S. deaths are now due to medical error… Third highest cause of death in the U.S. is medical error… Medical errors are an under-recognized cause of death” [12]. The number of number of doctor-certified deaths in 2020 in Australia was 119,200 [13]. If 10% were due to medical error (as in the US) then annual medical error deaths in Australia would total about 12,000. In 2006 the Australian Nurses Federation estimated 18,000 annual deaths from adverse events in hospitals [14].
(5). Carbon burning pollution (10,000).
The Climate Media Centre (2021): “The [Harvard] study finds that more than 8 million people are estimated to have died from fossil fuel pollution in 2018 – almost double previous estimates. In Australia, it represents about 4 per cent of all deaths each year, or about 5700 fatalities” [15, 16]. However this estimate ignores the contribution from bushfires (forest fires). Thus from Canadian and New Zealand epidemiological data it was estimated in 2011 that Australian air pollution deaths totalled 9,646 or about 10,000 annually, the breakdown being 4,600 (coal-fired power stations), 2,200 (vehicle particulate emissions) and 2,800 (particulates from other burning) (noting that Canada, Australia and New Zealand are quite comparable, affluent Anglosphere societies) [17]. In the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires (mainly in South Eastern Australia) it was estimated on 10 January 2021 that Australia’s total CO2 emissions in the 2019/20 financial year jumped from 532 Mt CO2-e to 532 Mt CO2-e + 753 Mt CO2-e = 1,285 Mt CO2-e with 3-4 months to go in the fire season (and toxic pollution from carbon fuel burning would have increased proportionately, with inevitable corresponding long-term effects) [18]. As estimated in 2015, 18 million Australians (or 75% of Australia’s 2015 population of 24 million) lived in urban areas and there is high motor vehicle use – translating the London pollution-related mortality data (9,416 deaths annually) to urban Australia corresponds to 9,416 deaths x 18 million/ 8.6 million = 19,707 or about 20,000 urban Australian deaths annually from air pollution involving fine carbon particulates and NO2 [19].
(6). Alcohol-related (5,900).
The National Drug Research Institute (2018): “An estimated 5,785 Australians aged 15 and over died from alcohol-attributable causes in 2015” [20].
(7). Avoidable Indigenous Australian deaths from deprivation (5,200).
Most Indigenous Australians suffer living conditions and social circumstances that are much worse than for non-Indigenous Australians in relation to health, housing, employment, education, infant mortality, avoidable mortality and incarceration. Assuming an avoidable mortality from deprivation in 2018 of 0.6% pa and an estimated Indigenous Australian population of 865,000 (2018), Indigenous Australian avoidable deaths in 2018 totalled about 5,200 [21-23]. In 2020 avoidable deaths from deprivation totalled about 4,000 for an Indigenous Occupied Palestinian population of 5.1 million [24], as compared to about 5,000 in 2018 for an Indigenous Australian population of about 0.9 million i.e. relative to population, annual avoidable mortality from deprivation for Indigenous Australians (granted human rights and equal rights in 1967) is 6 times higher than for the sorely oppressed Indigenous Occupied Palestinians highly abusively confined without human rights by the Apartheid Israeli military to ever dwindling West Bank ghettoes or the blockaded and bombed Gaza Concentration Camp [25]. Deaths from violence (0.1 million) and from imposed deprivation and disease (2 million) are about the same for the WW1 onwards and ongoing Palestinian Genocide and the 1788 onwards and ongoing Australian Aboriginal Genocide [21-27].
(8). Suicide (3,100).
In 2020 there were 3,139 suicide deaths in Australia [28]. About 80 of these annual suicides are of Australian war veterans [29].
(9). Heat stress (2,000).
Professor Alan March and colleagues: “In terms of fatality numbers, Handmer et al (2018) suggest that over 50% of natural hazard deaths in Australia between 1967 and 2013 were caused by heatwaves. Heatwave deaths in Victoria during the 2009 bushfire season amounted to 374, as compared to 173 directly attributed to the fires themselves. Ongoing heat wave deaths per annum in Australia are currently estimated at approximately 2000 (Jackson WJ, 2016; Philpott & Kesteven, 2016). It is also noteworthy that heatwave deaths per annum are predicted to double by 2050” [30].
(10). Drug-related (1,800).
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2022): “Preliminary AIHW National Mortality Database data in 2020 showed that: There were 1,842 drug-induced [non-alcohol, non-tobacco] deaths (age-standardised rate of 7.2 per 100,000 population)” [31].
(11) Melanoma (1,400).
Sunny Australia with a popular sports, outdoors and beach culture is the world’s worst for melanoma. Cancer Australia (2022): “In 2020, there were 1,401 deaths from melanoma of the skin in Australia” [32].
(12). Road deaths (1,200).
Road Deaths Australia (2022): “1,172 road deaths in the last 12 months” [33].
(13). Homicide including Femicide (193).
In 2021 there were 193 murders in Australia in 2021 [34]. According to The Guardian: “For the 10 years ending in 2018 on average, 89 women (62% of all women killed by men) were killed by current or former partners every year. In 2019 this was 65 women (51% of all women killed by men) and in 2020, the number was 57 women (51% of all women killed by men” [35].
(14). Islamist terrorism (0.2).
Like other Western countries Australia succumbed to US-promoted hysteria over Islamist terrorism after the 9/11 atrocity. Fortunately only 4 Australians were killed by Islamist terrorists in the 22 years since 9/11, this yielding an average death rate of 0.2 per year.
(15). Chinese “aggression” (0).
Notwithstanding US-led Western and Australian hysteria about asserted “Chinese aggression”, apart from border spats with India and Vietnam, China is extraordinary as a major power for not invading and conquering other countries – it conquered Tibet in the 13th century (when the English were conquering Celtic Britain) and Xinjiang in the 18th century (when the British were invading countries around the world and creating the British Empire on which the sun never set). Conversely China was invaded and devastated by major European powers in the 19th century and by Japan in the 20th century [24].
The circa 2020 annual preventable deaths for Australia total 98,800 or about 100,000.
(B). The risk-related US$150 billion Value of a Statistical Life (VSL) cost of 100,000 preventable Australian deaths each year.
According to the Australian Government (2021): “Willingness to pay is the appropriate way to estimate the value of reductions in the risk of physical harm – known as the value of statistical life. Based on international and Australian research a credible estimate of the value of statistical life is $5.1million [US$3.4 Million] and the value of statistical life year is $222,000 [US$149,000] in 2021 dollars … A key concept is the value of a statistical life (VSL) which is an estimate of the value society places on reducing the risk of dying. By convention the life is assumed to be the life of a young adult with at least 40 years of life ahead. It is a statistical life because it is not the life of any particular person. A related concept is the value of a statistical life year (VLY), which is an estimate of the value society places on a year of life. The value of a statistical life is most appropriately measured by estimating how much society is willing to pay to reduce the risk of death” [36].
Australian Government inaction is evidently due to money and fiscal priorities. It is therefore quite appropriate to consider the cost of about 100,000 preventable Australian lives each year. Major preventable death items (notably obesity, smoking, air pollution, and alcohol) are not immediately deadly but lower life expectancy. Older people typically need medical help, and inevitably suffer from medical errors. About 98% of Covid-19 deaths in Australia in 2020 were of 60 and older people [37]. Indigenous Australians are particularly susceptible to these factors and have a life expectancy about 10 years shorter than for non-Indigenous Australians. [23]. In the absence of a $100 million per year research institute full of specialist medical doctors, epidemiologists, scientists and health economists, let us assume that preventable deaths as sketched above cut life expectancy by an average of about 10 years. On this basis the risk avoidance-based Value of a statistical Life Year (VLY) for just 1 year lost on average per preventable death = 100,000 deaths per year) x (US$149,000 (A$222,000) per year per death) = US14.9 billion.($A22.2 billion). Accordingly, for an average of 10 years lost for each annual preventable death, the cost of 100,000 preventable deaths in 1 year will be US149 billion.($A222 billion).
A crude check on the order of magnitude of this result comes from considering the value of a statistical life (VSL) of US$3.4 million for Australians: 100,000 annual preventable deaths per year x US$3.4 million per preventable death = US$340 billion = A$507 billion.
If these estimates seem implausibly large, simply consider another massive “cost” run up each year by Australians but also resolutely and comprehensively ignored in look-the-other-way Australia. Carbon Debt is simply the damage-related cost of greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution that if not addressed now will inescapably have to be paid by future generations (e.g. if sea walls are not built, cities, towns and arable land will be inundated by the rising seas). The damage-related Carbon Price (in USD) is $200 per tonne CO2-equivalent, and from this one can estimate an inescapable global Carbon Debt of $200-$250 trillion and increasing by $16 trillion each year [38]. There is a Carbon Debt of US$5.1 trillion (A$7.6 trillion) that is increasing at US$400 billion (A$600 billion) per year and at US$40,000 (A$60,000) per head per year for under-30 year old Australians [39].
(C). Poverty is associated with an estimated 23,000 Australian deaths each year.
Poverty kills as demonstrated by the worst case “boundary condition” of total deprivation of the requisites for life meaning certain death. On an international comparative basis, in 2020 global avoidable deaths (excess deaths) from deprivation totalled 7.4 million of which only 93,000 (1.3%) occurred in the rich European World [24]. Within rich Australia (2022 population 26.0 million), as expertly estimated by the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) in 2022, 3.8 million Australians live below the poverty line [40]. The deadliness of this deprivation can be crudely estimated by considering that 5,200 Indigenous Australians die preventably from deprivation each year [23]. Accordingly, Australian deaths associated with dire poverty = 5,200 annual deaths per 0.865 million x 3.8 million= 23,000 annual poverty-related deaths. This is consonant with the finding set out above that about 100,000 Australians die preventably each year from various “life-style choice” and “political choice” reasons (noting that many Australians, both rich and poor, variously smoke, drink, are obese, and suffer from air pollution, illicit drugs etc).
(D). An Orwellian “Make war not love” – the warped fiscal priorities of US lackey Lib-Lab Australian Governments.
Australia is one of the world’s oldest parliamentary democracies and recently topped the world for median per capita wealth. Thus Statista (2021): “Switzerland was the richest country in the world with the highest average per-capita wealth of around US$674,000 per adult. The richest country measured by median per-capita wealth was Australia at around $238,000 in 2020” [41]. However the median is more important that the average when it comes to voting results in a one-person-one-vote democracy (the median is the position with the most adherents). Further, that richness statistic – like Australia itself – hides the Awful Truths about preventable Australian deaths set out in this essay. Indeed, as in other Western “democracies”, Australian democracy has become a Kleptocracy, Plutocracy, Murdochracy, Corporatocracy, Lobbyocracy and Dollarocracy in which Big Money purchases, people, parties, policies, public perception of reality, and hence votes and more power and more private wealth
Like other Anglosphere “democracies” Australia is still essentially a 2-party democracy. It is presently ruled by a cowardly, Centrist-Right, neoliberal, Zionist-subverted and US lackey Labor (Lab) Government that in 2022 succeeded a Right-Far Right, corrupt, mendacious, anti-science, pro-war, Zionist-subverted and US lackey Liberal Party-National Party Coalition (the Libs). Collectively known as the Lib-Labs, these major parties have very similar policies, and govern for the well-off Centre-Right of Australia. From the moral perspective of adherence to the key moral imperatives of Kindness and Truth, the Labs are vastly better than the Libs, but are cowardly and still fall far short of basic decency.
Thus, as lackeys of the UK or the US, Australians have invaded 85 countries, with 30 of these invasions being genocidal [42]. Australia participated in all post-1950 US Asian wars, atrocities associated with 40 million Asian deaths from violence and war-imposed deprivation [24]. The morally degenerate Libs backed all these wars, but the more squeamish Labs backed all but the Vietnam and Iraq wars [24]. The Lib-Labs have squandered huge wealth on US wars, wealth that could have been used to mitigate preventable deaths of Australians that presently total 100,000 each year. Rich, pro-war, and US lackey Australia follows the obscene perversion of “make war not love” while 23,000 Australians die preventably from poverty each year, and 100,000 die preventably from “life-style reasons” and “political choice reasons” each year.
The previous Coalition Australian Government with Labor support decided to give tax cuts to the rich that will cost the taxpayer A$243 billion in coming years, and scrapped a A$90 billion French submarine deal in favour of a UK-US nuclear-powered submarine deal that will cost about A$200 billion, tie Australia for decades to serial war criminal and nuclear terrorist America, harm nuclear non-proliferation, jeopardize Australian support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), and only deliver the submarines in the 2040s (2 decades away). Australia is in a difficult place with A$1 trillion in gross national debt, an inflation rate of 6% that is set to increase, and ever-increasing cost of living pressures. However the neoliberal Australian Lib-Labs (Liberal-National Party Opposition and Labor Government) are united in pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into the pockets of rich Australians, corporations, and the serial war criminal American military industrial complex. The appalling reality of 100,000 annual preventable deaths goes unrecognized and unaddressed.
(E). How Australia should address 100,000 preventable deaths annually in one of the world’s richest countries.
Overall, there must be proper reportage of the appalling reality of 100,000 annual preventable deaths; free medical help for those addicted to unhelpful behaviours; massive public education in the interests of preventive medicine; and strong moves away from the present creep towards a disastrous American model heavily involving private health care to a genuine universal free health scheme. Some more specific suggestions from me as a numerate and concerned layperson are sketched below for each item with preventable deaths given in brackets (no doubt sociologists and medical professionals would be able to make expert suggestions).
(1). Obesity (24,000) – anti-obesity messaging, exercise and anti-obesity programs in schools and for adults; banning sugary drinks.
(2). Smoking (20,000) – banning smoking; public education; free anti-addiction programs.
(3). Covid-19 (12,000) – attempt to follow the lessons provided by China (4 Covid-19 deaths per million of population versus a gerocidal 571 for Australia [8]), with continued vaccination, mask use in public and especially on public transport and at mass gatherings, social distancing, work at home, payments to keep infected people at home, public education, continued effective policies to protect the high risk groups (the elderly, immunocompromised, disabled, Indigenous and impoverished).
(4). Medical error (12,000) – massive investment to give decent working conditions for presently over-stretched doctors, nurses, and paramedics; tele-medicine; deployment of automated rapid diagnostic equipment (for eyes, skin, general medicine, psychiatry); greatly boosted university and other training programs to increase the medical workforce (including credit for free, high quality on-line courses); urgent rectification of huge deficiencies in Aged Care in Australia.
(5). Air pollution (10,000) – rapid cessation of coal, gas and oil exploitation and carbon fuel combustion (good for climate change too); tough regulation of vehicle emissions to drive uptake of electric vehicles and renewable energy-driven public transport; urgent and massive action on climate change to mitigate bushfires (forest fires); application of a correct damage-related Carbon Price (US$200 per tonne CO2-equivalent, Australia rejects a proper Carbon Price, and the world average applied Carbon Price is presently only US$2 per tonne CO2-equivalent [43]).
(6). Alcohol (5,900) – banning of alcohol (especially in vulnerable remote Indigenous communities); free anti-addiction services; determine how many drinkers are not actually addicted; note that Islamist terrorism (0.2 deaths annually) is banned in Australia (in some instances quite wrongly by including national liberation movements) and joining or supporting “government declared” terrorist groups can lead to life imprisonment in Australia, whereas alcohol is permitted to kill nearly 6,000 Australians annually.
(7). Indigenous preventable deaths (5,200) – puncture the hypocrisy of the White Establishment that is politically correct racist (PC racist) by lavish public acknowledgement of Indigenous Australians while in practice permitting an ongoing Aboriginal Genocide (over 5,000 preventable deaths annually, and a continuing 10 year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous [23]); empowerment (a guaranteed Indigenous Voice to Parliament); urgent rectification of income, employment, housing, air conditioning, dietary, legal access, health, education and incarceration differentials.
(8). Suicide (3,100) – greatly increased mental health staff and services; greatly increased training of specialist doctors and nurses; tele-medicine; medically-supervised, automated and AI-informed diagnostic services; poverty alleviation; Universal Basic Income and the Living Wage; cease the present automatic support for American wars.
(9). Heat stress (2000) – public education; air conditioning of the poor and Indigenous (especially in social housing and in remote and poor Indigenous communities).
(10). Illicit drugs (1,800) – effective education; free anti-addiction and rehabilitation programs; clean needle exchange services; decriminalizing of most drug use; free drug testing at mass events; alleviation of poverty and bad socio-economic circumstances.
(11). Melanoma (1,400) – effective education about protective measures (sun screen cream, clothing, hats, regular dermatologist visits) especially in schools and sporting clubs and associations; warnings about the dangerous tanning culture; free access to medically-supervised automated rapid diagnostic equipment.
(12). Road deaths (1,200) – free and expanded public transport; effective education; measures against alcohol and illicit drugs (see items 7 and 10 above).
(13). Homicide including Femicide (193) – greatly increased mental health staff and services; measures against alcohol and illicit drugs (see items 7 and 10); poverty elimination to address violent anti-social behaviour; measures to strongly address domestic violence, notably against women; protection, safe housing and other support for victims of domestic violence; education especially in schools for respect for women.
(14) and (15), Islamophobia, Sinophobia, xenophobia, racism and jingoism – racism is evil because we had no say in to whom we were born and by whom we were raised. War is the penultimate in racism and genocide the ultimate in racism. While Islamist terrorists have killed 0.2 Australians per year in the last 2 decades, and China zero (0), massive expenditures on the post-9-11 US War on Muslims and on US-derived arms to meet the asserted “China threat” divert funding from health, education, poverty alleviation, climate action, and other measures to address 100,000 preventable Australian deaths each year (see items 1-12 above). Thus the annual Australian defence budget is about A$40 billion, and Australia has spent billions each year on anti-terrorism and anti-Muslim US wars. As estimated in 2015, 32 million Muslims have died from violence, 5 million, and from imposed deprivation, 27 million, in 20 countries invaded by the US Alliance since the US Government’s 9/11 false flag atrocity that killed 3,000 people [44, 45]. Ignorant, racist and dangerously stupid US lackey Australian journalist, editor, politician, academic and commentariat presstitutes are absurdly beating up the asserted “China threat” and predicting “war with China” that would potentially destroy not just Australia but also most life on earth.
Final comments and conclusions.
100,000, the number of Australians dying preventably each year (a), is also the number of Australian military killed in overseas wars since Federation of the Australian states in 1901 (b). 100,000 is also approximately the number of Indigenous people killed violently in both the 1788 onwards Australian Aboriginal Genocide (c) and the WW1 onwards Palestinian Genocide (d) (noting that Australia is second only to the US as a fervent supporter of Apartheid Israel and hence of the crime of Apartheid and the ongoing Palestinian Genocide [23-27]). Yet in look-the-other-way Australia only (b), Australia’s overseas war dead, are recognized, and (a), (c) and (d) are resolutely ignored. Indeed the Australian War Memorial war museum in Canberra is being expanded at the cost of $500 million but refuses to acknowledge the circa 100,000 Indigenous Australians who died defending Australia from foreign invasion by the British in the so-called Frontier Wars [23].
Non-Indigenous Australians (except for the Left and the Greens) ignore the 2 million deaths from violence, deprivation and disease in both the ongoing, post-1788 Australian Aboriginal Genocide and the ongoing and WW1-onwards Palestinian Genocide (that was initiated by the Australian military victory at Beersheba, Palestine, on 31 October 1917 that enabled the 2 November 1917 Balfour Declaration in which the racist British gave Palestine to the genocidally racist and proto-Nazi Zionists). Australia also ignores the roughly 2 million Australians who have died preventably from “life-style choice” and “political choice” reasons in the 21st century.
Of course such huge and resolutely ignored preventable deaths do not just occur Australia. Thus it is estimated that each year 1.7 million Americans die preventably from “lifestyle choice” and “political choice” reasons, the breakdown (2017) including 443,000 (smoking), 440,000 (adverse hospital events), 300,000 (obesity), 200,000 (air pollution), 75,000 (alcohol), 45,000 (lack of medical insurance), 38,000 (illicit drugs), 33,000 (motor vehicles), 31,000 (guns), 30,000 (suicide), 21,000 (avoidable under-5 year infant deaths), and 15,000 (homicide). Such post-9/11 preventable American deaths now total 1.7 million per year x 20 years = 34 million. As of 2020, 3.0 million Americans die each year and thus 57% of these deaths have been preventable. It has been estimated that successive US Governments have committed $8 trillion to prosecuting genocidal wars this century, killing 32 million Muslims abroad through violence and deprivation rather than trying to save the lives of 34 million Americans at home [46, 47]. The UK, Canada, and New Zealand are culturally and economically similar to Australia, and one can crudely estimate from the relative populations that annual preventable deaths from “life-style choice” and “political choice” reasons in these countries total 262,000 (the UK), 147,000 (Canada) and 19,000 (New Zealand). As in similarly neoliberal Australia, this ongoing catastrophe is largely ignored by Anglosphere governments committed to the capitalist imperative of maximizing the freedom of the smart and advantaged to ruthlessly exploit human and natural resources for private profit.
We live in a globalized, and neoliberal world that is heading towards disaster through insatiable greed [48, 49]. Decent folk committed to the key moral imperatives of Kindness and Truth should (a) inform everyone they can, and (b) also consider the preventable death holocaust in their own country.
References.
[1]. Gideon Polya, “Australian State Terrorism – Zero Australian Terrorism Deaths, 1 Million Preventable Australian Deaths & 10 Million Muslims Killed By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 23 September 2014: https://countercurrents.org/polya230914.htm .
[2]. James Lee, “15 Obesity Statistics Australia Should Know About (2022)”, WhatASleep, January 2022: https://whatasleep.com.au/blog/obesity-statistics-australia/ .
[3]. Dana Goldman, USC, “Obesity, Second to Smoking as the Most Preventable Cause of US Deaths, Needs New Approaches”, USC, 27 January 2020: https://healthpolicy.usc.edu/article/obesity-second-to-smoking-as-the-most-preventable-cause-of-us-deaths-needs-new-approaches/ .
[4]. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, “Australian Burden of Disease Study 2018 – Key findings”, 18 August 2021: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/burden-of-disease/burden-of-disease-study-2018-key-findings/contents/key-findings .
[5]. Robert Tait et al., “Preventing harmful drug use in Australia”, National Drug Research Institute, May 2019: https://ndri.curtin.edu.au/ndri/media/documents/publications/T273.pdf .
[6].Google, “Coronavirus disease – Australia”, 23 September 2022: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=covid+deaths+australia .
[7]. Melissa Davey, “Covid becomes Australia’s third most common cause of death in 2022”, Guardian, 8 August 2022: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/08/covid-becomes-australias-third-most-common-cause-of-death-in-2022 .
[8]. Worldometer, “Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic”: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ .
[9]. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), “Covid deaths”, 9 June 2022: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/life-expectancy-death/deaths-in-australia/contents/covid-19-deaths .
[10]. “Doctors and students support zero-COVID advocate Dr David Berger”, WSWS, 4 August 2022: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/08/05/jbfx-a05.html .
[11]. “Letter to Health Ministers: re Ahpra and Dr David Berger”: https://speakupdoc.com/ .
[12]. Johns Hopkins Medicine, “Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in the U.S.”, 3 May 2016): https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/study_suggests_medical_errors_now_third_leading_cause_of_death_in_the_us .
[13]. Australian Government, Centre for Population, “Provisional mortality statistics”, October 2021: https://population.gov.au/data-and-forecasts/key-data-releases/provisional-mortality-statistics-october-2021
[14]. Australian Nurses Federation “Safe staffing saves lives”, May 2006: http://www.anf.org.au/html/professional/news_prof_0605.html .
[15]. Climate Media Centre, “Harvard study links Australian deaths to fossil fuel emissions”, Medianet, 10 February 2021: https://www.medianet.com.au/news-hub-post?id=196724 .
[16]. Leah Burrows, “Fossil fuel air pollution responsible for [deaths of] more than 8 million people worldwide in 2018”, Harvard, 9 February 2021: https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2021/02/deaths-fossil-fuel-emissions-higher-previously-thought .
[17]. “2011. Australian carbon burning-related deaths and carbon burning subsidies => minimum Carbon Price of A$554 per tonne carbon”, Yarra Valley Climate Action Group, 2011: https://sites.google.com/site/yarravalleyclimateactiongroup/2011-carbon-burning .
[18]. Gideon Polya, “Trumpist Climate Change Denial, Australian Bushfires, Fuel Reduction, Biochar & Carbon Debt”, Countercurrents, 10 January 2021: https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/trumpist-climate-change-denial-australian-bushfires-fuel-reduction-biochar-carbon-debt/ .
[19]. “Stop air pollution deaths”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/stop-air-pollution-deaths .
[20]. National Drug Research Institute, “Media Release: Alcohol causes nearly 6,000 Australian deaths in one year, a third from cancer”, 27 February 2018: https://ndri.curtin.edu.au/news-events/ndri-news/media-release-alcohol-causes-nearly-6000 .
[21]. Gideon Polya, “Apartheid Israel’s Palestinian Genocide & Australia’s Aboriginal Genocide Compared”, Countercurrents, 20 February 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/02/apartheid-israels-palestinian-genocide-australias-aboriginal-genocide-compared/ .
[22]. Gideon Polya, “US-imposed Post-9/11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide”, Korsgaard Publishing, Germany , 2020.
[23]. “Aboriginal Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/aboriginalgenocide/ .
[24]. Gideon Polya, “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950”, 2nd edition, Korsgaard Publishing, Germany , 2021.
[25]. Gideon Polya, “Australia must stop Zionist subversion and join the World in comprehensive Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel and all its supporters”, Subversion of Australia, 15 April 2021: https://sites.google.com/site/subversionofaustralia/2021-04-15 .
[26]. Gideon Polya, “US- & Zionist-subverted Australia & Sorely Oppressed Indigenous Palestinians”, Countercurrents, 22 June 2022: https://countercurrents.org/2022/06/us-zionist-subverted-australia-sorely-oppressed-indigenous-palestinians/ .
[27]. Gideon Polya, “Empathy Exercise: What If The Zionists Invaded, Devastated, And Ethnically Cleansed Australia Too? ”, Countercurrents,12 March 2022: https://countercurrents.org/2022/03/empathy-exercise-what-if-the-zionists-invaded-devastated-and-ethnically-cleansed-australia-too/ .
[28]. Australian Institute for Health and Welfare, “Suicide and self-harm monitoring”, 2021: https://www.aihw.gov.au/suicide-self-harm-monitoring/data/deaths-by-suicide-in-australia/suicide-deaths-over-time .
[29]. Gideon Polya, “Jingoistic, US Lackey Australia’s Deadly Betrayal Of Its Traumatized Veterans”, Countercurrents, 18 May 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/05/26768/ .
[30]. Alan March, Crystal Legacy, Georgia Warren-Myers, and Leonardo Nogueira de Moraes, “Heat wave and building codes in New South Wales: issues and prospects”, Bushfire & Natural Hazards CRC, 2020: https://www.bnhcrc.com.au/sites/default/files/managed/downloads/heatwave_and_building_codes_in_nsw_final_report_200521_0.pdf .
[31]. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, “Alcohol, tobacco & other drugs in Australia”, 24 August 2022: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/alcohol/alcohol-tobacco-other-drugs-australia/contents/impacts/health-impacts#druginduceddeaths .
[32]. Cancer Australia, “Melanoma of the skin”, 15 September 2022: https://www.canceraustralia.gov.au/cancer-types/melanoma/statistics .
[33]. Road Deaths Australia, “Road Deaths Australia – monthly bulletins, 2022: https://www.bitre.gov.au/publications/ongoing/road_deaths_australia_monthly_bulletins .
[34]. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Recorded crimes – victims”, 28 July 2022: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/recorded-crime-victims/latest-release .
[35]. Karen Ingala Smith and Clarrie O’Callaghan, “Femicide: there’s a disturbing reason for the falling number of murders”, The Guardian, 27 February 2022: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/feb/27/femicide-census-theres-a-disturbing-reason-for-the-falling-number-of-murders .
[36]. Australian Government, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Office of Best Practice Regulation, “Best practice regulation guidance note. Value of a statistical life”, August 2021: https://obpr.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-09/value-of-statistical-life-guidance-note-2020-08.pdf .
[37]. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, “COVID-19 deaths”, 9 June 2022: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/life-expectancy-death/deaths-in-australia/contents/covid-19-deaths .
[38]. Gideon Polya, “Inescapable $200-250 Trillion Global Carbon Debt Increasing By $16 Trillion Annually”, Countercurrents, 27 April 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/04/inescapable-200-250-trillion-global-carbon-debt-increasing-by-16-trillion-annually-gideon-polya/ .
[39]. “Carbon debt, carbon credit”: https://sites.google.com/site/carbondebtcarboncredit/ .
[40]. Poverty & Inequality, Australia Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW), “Poverty in Australia”, 2022: https://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/poverty/ .
[41]. Katharina Buchholz, “Which countries are really the richest?”, Statista, 29 June 2021: https://www.statista.com/chart/19651/countries-with-highest-per-capita-average-and-median-wealth/ .
[42]. Gideon Polya, “Review: “The Cambridge History Of Australia” Ignores Australian Involvement In 30 Genocides”, Countercurrents, 14 October 2013: https://countercurrents.org/polya141013.htm .
[43]. Gideon Polya, “Australia Rejects IMF Carbon Tax & Preventing 4 Million Pollution Deaths By 2030”, Countercurrents, 15 October 2019: https://countercurrents.org/2019/10/australia-rejects-imf-carbon-tax-preventing-4-million-pollution-deaths-by-2030/ .
[44]. Gideon Polya, “Paris Atrocity Context: 27 Million Muslim Avoidable Deaths From Imposed Deprivation In 20 Countries Violated By US Alliance Since 9-11”, Countercurrents, 22 November, 2015: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya221115.htm .
[45]. “Experts: US did 9/11”: https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/ .
[46]. Gideon Polya, “Trump’s abolition of ObamaCare will kill 43,000 Americans over 2 Trump terms””, Countercurrents, 16 March 2017: https://countercurrents.org/2017/03/trumps-abolition-of-obamacare-will-kill-43000-americans-over-2-trump-terms/ .
[47]. Gideon Polya, “Lying America did 9/11 and then killed over 30 million Muslims”, Countercurrents, 20 September 2021: https://countercurrents.org/2021/09/lying-america-did-9-11-and-then-killed-over-30-million-muslims/ .
[48]. Gideon Polya, “How Much Negative Carbon Emissions, Negative Population Growth & Negative Economic Growth Is Needed To Save Planet?”, Countercurrents, 28 November 2018: https://countercurrents.org/2018/11/how-much-negative-carbon-emissions-negative-population-growth-negative-economic-growth-is-needed-to-save-planet/ .
[49]. Gideon Polya, “Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide & Solutions”, Korsgaard Publishing, Germany, 2020.
Dr Gideon Polya taught science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia over 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, notably a huge pharmacological reference text “Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds”. He has also published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (2007, 2022) and “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (1998, 2008). He has recently published “US-imposed Post-9-11 Muslim Holocaust & Muslim Genocide” (2020), and “Climate Crisis, Climate Genocide & Solutions” (2020). For images of Gideon Polya’s huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ .
