Rab Wardell, the newly crowned Scottish MTB XC champion, passed away in his sleep a few days after winning the Scottish cycling title at the age of 37.
Katie Archibald, his partner and Olympic champion, tweeted that “he had suffered a cardiac arrest.” According to Archibald, although she tried her best to revive him, and the paramedics arrived within minutes, they still couldn’t save him.
In a statement, British Cycling expressed its sorrow to lose a “brilliant rider, friend and ambassador for our sport.”
At the time of writing, the cause of Wardell’s cardiac arrest still remains unknown.
Inquiry Into Excess Deaths in Scotland Since the Start of COVID-19 Pandemic
The Scottish government has started an inquiry into the causes of excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland.
Excess deaths refer to the total number of deaths in a week in 2022 minus the average number of deaths in the same week over the period from 2016 to 2021, while excluding 2020 to not inflate the previous years’ average, as there was a large number of deaths in spring 2020 (Excess Deaths = Total Number of Deaths – Average Number of Deaths in Previous Years).
Excess deaths include deaths caused by the pandemic and those from other causes.
According to the official website of the Scottish Parliament, the weekly numbers of deaths in Scotland between April 2020 and April 2022 (the latest available date) are larger than the average numbers of deaths in the same weeks of previous years, for most of the weeks during this period.
For instance, for the week beginning Jan. 4, 2021, there were 1,720 deaths, while the previous years’ average for the weeks beginning Jan. 4 (from 2016 to 2019) was 1,276, so the number of excess deaths was 444 (34.80 percent).
However, what’s unclear is the extent to which the excess deaths are caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, or if they are due to other reasons.
By MERCURA WANG and DR. YUHONG DONG
