evidence: Extra deaths in 2022 close to highest level in 70 years - how much are NHS failings to blame? [...] The total number of excess deaths in 2022 was among the highest recorded since the aftermath of the Second World War, according to figures from the Continuous Mortality Investigation (CMI). [...] The first six months of 2022 had fewer deaths than the five-year average, in part because there were still several thousand COVID deaths per week in the first months of 2021, which raised the average that we compare to.