I agree - there is probably a story here, but the writer didn't do a very good job connecting the dots, correlation is not causation, lazy journalism at its worst.

How is this for a headline?

"5,333 US workers died in the 12 months following Qatar withdrawing from OPEC"

or

"5,333 US Workers died in the 12 months following Austria legalizing same sex marriage"

source: https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/2019/january https://www.osha.gov/data/commonstats