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> I think it's fair to say that if someone dies for whatever reason and they test positive for COVID-19 then their death should be included in the official tota

> I think it's fair to say that if someone dies for whatever reason and they test positive for COVID-19 then their death should be included in the official total. You think that someone who has COVID-19 asymptomatically, and dies from being crushed by a falling piano should be included in the official death total? If you applied the same logic to prostate cancer, probably 50%+ of men "die" of prostate cancer.

e98cuenc 7y ago
You are right strictly speaking, but misleading. In the vast majority of cases of people dying with COVID-19 from another condition, COVID-19 is the reason why this other condition became lethal. That's why it makes sense to attribute the death to COVID-19.
- guscost 7y ago
  That’s just the absurd example. How do you call it when someone dies five minutes early because they got a stuffy nose? How about a day early? A year early? The coroner is supposed to make these judgements, and it’s not entirely clear how you should aggregate them into a big-number statistic. If you go by official cause of death, nobody dies of a cold in most countries. If you go by a positive test, loads of people do.
- s9w 7y ago
  That is quite a claim
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Scarblac 7y ago
Comorbidities include obesity, hypertension, diabetes. To exclude covid deaths because of those would be just as absurd as that prostate cancer statement.
- thu2111 7y ago
  Why? Bear in mind what we want here is not some absolute, objective truth which cannot exist anyway - as pointed out in other comments, where do you draw the line with this stuff? If someone is 90 and dies after having tested positive, did they die of a new preventable disease or was it just their time? The distinction can end up being arbitrary. What people care about is numbers comparable with other diseases so the strength of response can be correctly calibrated. And clearly these numbers are useless for that, especially as flu isn't tracked or reported in the same way.

e98cuenc 7y ago

You are right strictly speaking, but misleading. In the vast majority of cases of people dying with COVID-19 from another condition, COVID-19 is the reason why this other condition became lethal. That's why it makes sense to attribute the death to COVID-19.

guscost 7y ago
That’s just the absurd example. How do you call it when someone dies five minutes early because they got a stuffy nose? How about a day early? A year early? The coroner is supposed to make these judgements, and it’s not entirely clear how you should aggregate them into a big-number statistic. If you go by official cause of death, nobody dies of a cold in most countries. If you go by a positive test, loads of people do.
s9w 7y ago
That is quite a claim
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Scarblac 7y ago

Comorbidities include obesity, hypertension, diabetes. To exclude covid deaths because of those would be just as absurd as that prostate cancer statement.

thu2111 7y ago
Why? Bear in mind what we want here is not some absolute, objective truth which cannot exist anyway - as pointed out in other comments, where do you draw the line with this stuff? If someone is 90 and dies after having tested positive, did they die of a new preventable disease or was it just their time? The distinction can end up being arbitrary. What people care about is numbers comparable with other diseases so the strength of response can be correctly calibrated. And clearly these numbers are useless for that, especially as flu isn't tracked or reported in the same way.