"...died with Covid19."

[Dilbertian]

Anyone noticed this change in the way the BBC is reporting deaths of people ill with Covid? When did the terminology change? What triggered this change?

What was it before? That seems perfectly normal sounding to me.

I think they were saying 'died FROM' Covid19.

Because technically they died OF pneumonia or heart failure or sepsis

Because they can't definitively say it was COVID that killed them. Eddie Large for instance, almost 80 suffering from heart failure then caught COVID in hospital. They can't say it was COVID that caused his death.

@BruceAndNosh exactly! The virus itself does not kill you its what happens because of the virus, most people in hospital are asked to sign a DNR as they are more likely to have a heart attack.

Well it’s been ridiculous that they’ve been referring to it as just “coronavirus” for as long as they have if thats what you mean?
The virus is called SARS Cov 2 (which is one of many coronaviruses, mostly benignly causing a common cold). The illness caused by SARS cov 2 is COVID19 so that’s exactly the terminology they should be using and should have from day dot.

Eddie Large?? As in Little and Large?!

Yes I noticed that.

It has changed from 'died of' to 'died with' in recent days I think.

'Died with' is likely more accurate in most cases becuase they can't determine cause of death without autopsy etc.

Because only after post mortems and other analysis will we start to get a picture of who died of covid 19 and who died from something unrelated but had it. Also it's a case that most people dying were in the last 7 months of their life, so it's a case of whether it hastened their death

Because the reality is, as we know, that most people who are sadly dying, have other very serious conditions even before they contract Covid. The same would be said of someone who was dying of, for example, of cancer, but caught flu then pneumonia. It's a complex area, but death certification has all sorts of complicated first and secondary causes and doctors have very strict rules they have to follow when they certify death.

Some time ago I was very surprised to find out that you can't die of old age for example, even if you are 105, you have to die of "something".

Yesblueskys72. He was in hospital with heart failure and caught COVID there so they can't say he died of COVID because he was in hospital for heart failure anyway.

I’ve been saying this for weeks and it was really annoying me! I think the terminology previously used just fanned the flame of panic