Global Implications of Vaccination and Rising Infant Mortality in the Philippines
Philippines Infant Mortality Paper issued DOI number and becomes permanent public domain and searchable. Just over 1,400 downloads from the journal website since it was published 2 weeks ago.
The Philippines infant mortality study covering 41.7 million births and 0.55 million infant deaths from 2000 to 2024 has been issued with a DOI number, meaning that it is fully searchable and has entered permanent public domain.
https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/7457
One of the main comments received is on the reliability of this data which comes from the Philippines Statistics Authority and from Department of Health. Responses are: -
PSA is one of the best performing statistics authorities in the region. The data that they publish is unsurpassed in detail. If only other authorities published such data!
PSA final annual data, published 12 months after the close of each calendar year, includes a lag time of around 8 months for collection of late registrations in advance of publication. My observation of data compilation over time supports this. Following is the data collection for 2025 (still ongoing) showing how data is updated with each monthly release. Below are 2025 birth and death data compiled as of 28 Feb 2026; with each additional release of compiled data there are fewer and fewer registrations for early months.
While the early years data (2000 to mid-2010s) may indeed under capture births and deaths, recent data (past 5-6 years, which the paper concentrated on) is likely substantially complete, with capture improving over time (capture of both births and deaths). 97+% of births happen in hospitals. The hospitals initiate the birth certificate issue process. Birth certificates are needed for access to social services and the education system. Death certificates are required before burial or cremation is allowed. Death certificates are also needed for settlement of affairs and inheritance, including any government benefits / assistance. Philippines is also in advanced stages of implementing a National ID system, which was formalized in 2018, and is a way of accurately tracking populations.
Data is also single source (PSA for births and deaths, DOH for vaccine data), single agency compiled. This makes the patterns of births and deaths observed critically important, even if one wanted to argue about numbers.
Global agencies use modelling to estimate Philippines data, including substantial under-registration factors for births. Their assumptions on Philippines total population are also substantially different from those of PSA. At this point I would expect that PSA is the most accurate source of population data for the Philippines.
PSA, 2024 Census Population = 112,729,484
Macrotrends Population in 2025 = 120,864,358
Worldometer Population Estimate in 2025 (as of August 23, 2025) = 116,919,571
UNICEF Population Estimate = 116,786,962
I am available for interview for any interested parties. My co-authors may also be available (upon request) to join.
That's a really smart study design on assessing the month by month impact of vaccination schedules on infant mortality. I have noticed in trying to compile Thailand population data that the same overestimate of population goes on with official Google sources. This is especially clear in extrapolated birth numbers which are consistently much higher than what Thailand's DOPA (Department of Provincial Affairs) records. For the same reasons mentioned in the Philippines almost every birth and death would be registered here though there would be a lag sometimes.
I can only assume the overpopulation estimates are to hide the depopulation hiding in plain sight at this point...
Congratulations on your seminal and groundbreaking paper. And thank you very much for all the hard work you've been doing to bring to the world the Philippines' data, pre- and post-covid. No longer will the Philippines be described as one with the highest growth rates in the world, a distinction it held for many decades I think. And this is sad to say. My great hope is that there will not be any other plandemic that will further bring its growth rate down .