Has anyone seen this doing the rounds on Facebook?

[Heatheronthehill]

I've just seen this posted in a comment

"For those who are doubting the excess deaths in the U.K. from Covid-19 I emplore you to phone up any funeral directors and ask them about their waiting list.
Covid-19 is here, it is worse than they are telling us. The reason people get it worse the second time is because the first time they had it, their lungs were permanently damaged. When people with 3rd/4th rounds of infection start to show up, the rate of deaths will increase further.

I’ve been reading scientific papers published by the respiratory medicine community and the future isn’t looking so peachy. It is important that we all do our part to curb the virus and that we let them do their part to properly research therapies to help with the long term lung damage being caused right now. The sooner we can get some kind of vaccine in the community, even if it’s not effective for everyone, the better."

Does anyone have any knowledge of how true this is?

[PuzzledObserver]

I take funerals professionally. When I started 13 years ago, the normal wait for a funeral most of the year was 7-10 days. At busy times, i.e. in the winter, it could get to 2 weeks.

About 6 years ago it started to change, and getting a funeral in less than 2 weeks became uncommon. One of the funeral directors I worked with blamed the new coroner for questioning anything. However, I've since moved to a different area, and it's the same here.

I think the big change is that most of the independent funeral directors have been swallowed up in chains, and they share staff and vehicles across branches. Once upon a time, Bloggs and Co had a hearse, limousines and team of men, and so did Jones and son the other end of town. Now, although they still trade under those names, they both belong to the same conglomerate, and share resources across 10 different branches in the region. So you are not only waiting for availability at the crem, you are also waiting until the funeral director, hearse and bearers are available.

That's by the by. I was up at the crem in April and asked the FD how busy it was... he told me it had all gone crazy Easter weekend. I was up there several times last month - no, we're not busier than usual.

But with Covid deaths creeping up, they soon will be.

[5lilducks]

I was daft enough to call my local funeral director and ask and gosh were they rude or what. The man who answered the phone said "anyone who isn't dead at the moment is on the waiting list love" and he hung up on me. So rude.

[Coffeeandaride]

I have seen no evidence to say this is true.

I wouldn’t bother ringing funeral directors, an individual “waiting list” doesn’t seem like a good source of information.

[ChristmasinJune]

Well the "scientific evidence" they offer is telling you to ring your local undertaker and ask them

So no, I'm not going to get too worried by this one thanks!!

[CoffeeandCroissant]

Sounds like the usual Facebook bollocks.

You can't hide deaths, UK excess death figures are currently slightly above the five year average after being below the average for a while and were noticeably above the five year average back in the Spring.

Even in countries where Covid-19 deaths have been underreported (eg Mexico, Iran) the higher numbers have been revealed by the excess deaths figures.

Anything on social media without a link to reliable sources is best ignored and if someone genuinely did have information that was in the public interest but was not in the public domain they would be better off contacting a reliable journalist rather than making random posts on Facebook.

[Torvean32]

There is known second infections, but in a very small number and none have died.
So 3,/4 infections in the same person Im not buying. I also don't think funeral directors give out causes of death.

[NinetyNineRedBalloonsGoBy]

@5lilducks

I was daft enough to call my local funeral director and ask and gosh were they rude or what. The man who answered the phone said "anyone who isn't dead at the moment is on the waiting list love" and he hung up on me. So rude.

[MsWarrensProfession]

There is no need to do this when the ONS publish death stats weekly. Unless you’re a genuine tinfoil hater who thinks those numbers are faked.

I check those figures every month or so for work purposes and they’ve been ticking along at the historic average throughout the summer. In the last couple of weeks they’ve perhaps shown the first signs of ticking up slightly over average, the first hint that things will look bad in a month’s time but nothing that funeral directors across the country would be flagging up.

[MsWarrensProfession]

Graph smoothed slightly at weeks 35-37 to tidy up anomalies at August Bank Holiday week.

[SheepandCow]

No need to call funeral directors. Just speak to the frontline NHS workers.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/31/traumatised-intensive-care-nurses-sectioned-wake-first-wave/

The number of nurses who have died of COVID is now equal to those ‘who died in the First World War’, says ICN chief.

Of course, it's about way more than deaths. The economic damage of failed containment aside, you might want a chat with some of the Long Covid sufferers.

From the JAMA
Many #COVID19 long haulers didn’t require hospitalization, let alone ICU stays. Researchers suspect #SARSCoV2 can trigger long-lasting changes in the immune system, especially in the lungs, which may persist long after patients stop shedding the virus

[SabrinaTheTeenageBitch]

My husband is a funeral director. They are becoming steadily busier (as they always do in winter anyway). Yes, covid deaths are coming in again as they did in the first lockdown. No, nothing is being covered up

[SheepandCow]

amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/04/long-covid-the-evidence-of-lingering-heart-damage

[findingschools4myboys]

Sounds like utter garbage 😬

[bigbluebus]

If there were waiting lists for funerals do you not think the media would be reporting that? I know someone who died suddenly recently. Sudden unexpected death so I'm guessing there was a post mortem too. Funeral was 13 days after they died so clearly no backlog/waiting list here.