A Republican lawmaker in Maine sounded the alarm over the state's alarming "silent epidemic" of an 18% increase in excess deaths since 2020, but Democrat colleagues ignored her warnings and stymied her effort to investigate.

Rep. Heidi Sampson (R-Alfred) said the state's Democratic lawmakers "shrugged their shoulders" when she proposed investigating the increase in sudden deaths in 2020 among young and middle-aged adults in Maine with no known previous illness.

After growing increasingly concerned about the data showing a rise in excess during the COVID plandemic, Sampson tried to bring the issue to the Maine House of Representatives in March.

Sampson compiled 2015-2022 Maine all-cause mortality data analyzed by a statistician, and warned her colleagues that Maine has since 2020 seen close to an 18% increase in excess deaths among 25- to 64-year-olds.

She also cited the CEO of the One America insurance company, saying he "publicly disclosed that during the third and fourth quarter of 2021, death in people of working age 18 to 64 was 40% higher than it was before the pandemic."

"This data was compiled by actuaries who are the mathematical experts insurance companies rely upon," she told the Defender. "A 40% increase in deaths is literally earthshaking. Even a 10% increase in excess deaths would have been a 1-in-200-year event."

She went on to describe the suddenly common phenomenon of "sudden death syndrome", examples of which include death by heart attack, stroke, meningitis, brain aneurysm, pulmonary embolism, anaphylaxis and asthma.

"You will find hundreds, even thousands, of examples. A few years ago, this was unheard of," she told her colleagues, adding that "sudden death syndrome (SDS)" was a "silent epidemic" that demanded immediate attention and investigation.