Determining the Cause of Death: A Scientific Perspective

[pinball1970]

Though it would be hilarious if that was the report they give.

It's been an anti vax thing early doors and they are still wheeling it out.
There are about 160,000 death certs with COVID19 from March 2020 in the UK.
Official deaths are at 135000 due to Covid. We can assume Drs and pathologists can still do an ok job and the stat guys who look at 5 year averages year by year month by month make a contribution. I think that's why the UK reduced numbers by about 5000 last year and China added 3000.

 

[Mayhem]

Isn't that for the Coroner to decide?

Until then, his cause of death is a superposition of COVID and long term smoking.

And as much of a trite joke that is, it is actually likely a combination of both.

 

[DaveE]

There is rarely a single cause of death, except in the popular press.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/blue_form.pdf

 

[Averagesupernova]

I am going to take a risk that this post will sound too political, but I can foresee a future where the cause of death will be xxxx and long term complications of covid.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I am going to take a risk that this post will sound too political, but I can foresee a future where the cause of death will be xxxx and long term complications of covid.

Possibly true. In one study, 30% of college athletes who tested positive for Covid had heart damage.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/ja...ign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=091120

One of the particularly insidious aspects of Covid is that you can have permanent heart, lung, vascular, or neurological damage, and not even know you had it.

One can even imagine that since we likely do not develop much long-term immunity to this, it could conceivably come back each year like other Corona viruses referred to as the common cold. But with this, each time you get it, it makes you more vulnerable the next time by doing lung and/or other organ or vascular damage. Eventually it degrades your health enough to kill you.

 

[DaveC426913]

Lot of opinions in this thread. I confess I did not read them all.

As I see it, one should ask the question: But for Covid-19, would this person be alive today? The answer is surely: probably.

That means it is classified as a Covid-related death. It does not have to be the cause of death to be counted as a Covid-related death.

Especially since, technically, no one has ever died of Covid-19 they have all died from complications arising due to Covid-19.

 

[DaveC426913]

And not to put too fine a point on it, but 100% of all deaths are due to the same cause: lack of oxygen to the brain. All other factors (up to and including cardiac arrest - and even exsanguination) are merely contributory.