[quote Derbygerbil]@KittyMcV
It’s a myth that many people have deaths recorded as Covid are simply “with” it, rather than “of” it as shown by the following extract from the ONS website:
“ Between 1 March and 30 June 2020, there were 218,837 deaths that occurred in England and Wales and that were registered by 4 July 2020. Over a fifth of these deaths (23.0%) involved the coronavirus (COVID-19) (50,335 deaths). The doctor certifying a death can list all causes in the chain of events that led to the death and pre-existing conditions that may have contributed to the death. Using this information, we determine an underlying cause of death. More information on this process can be found in our user guide. In the majority of cases (46,736 deaths, 92.8%) where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, it was found to be the underlying cause of death.
Our definition of COVID-19 includes some cases where the certifying doctor suspected the death involved COVID-19 but was not certain, for example, because no test was done. Of the 46,736 deaths with an underlying cause of COVID-19, 3,763 (8.1%) were classified as “suspected” COVID-19. Including mentions, “suspected” COVID-19 was recorded on 8.4% (4,251 deaths) of all deaths involving COVID-19.”[/quote]
I stand corrected and this is interesting. I still believe that there are so many confounding variables that we won't know the true picture until much later. My comment was based on something I read or heard which stated that if someone was run over by a bus, but on the post mortem it found they had had Covid in the past number of (I forget) weeks, that it would still be registered as a Covid death. This is obviously incorrect! We are not going to have any really accurate picture until we see what the overall death rate is compared to what normally would have been, and also what the longer-term implications are for those who have been infected but have not died. Would it be possible that people whose lungs have been affected have a subsequent shorter lifespan? There is so much fake information out there at the moment that it's hard to know what to believe any more. All I know is that in my circle, two people have had it and not known until they were tested (as nurses), two people have had it and been very ill, but recovered and one person has been unable to have their cancer surgery because of the limitations to surgery caused by Covid. I am therefore of the opinion that we need to be careful that the 'cure' is not more harmful than the virus itself. I think it's important that we try not to get hysterical, therefore.