evidence: Medical experts in Northern Ireland are striving to pinpoint why the country has such a high death rate from covid-19, as its current seven day death rate per 100 000 people is more than twice as high as in the wider UK1 and 10 times as high as in the Republic of Ireland.2 [...] Northern Ireland’s chief scientific adviser, Ian Young, has said that while there have been cases of young, unvaccinated people dying from covid-19 recently, the majority of deaths remain among elderly people. [...] The highest number of covid cases reported in a single day in Northern Ireland to date was 2397, on 20 August this year.6 Young said that the recent spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was not linked to any single event or outbreak but rather was down to "widespread community transmission." Experts say that the reasons for this are multifaceted.