> the single digit percentage uptick in the overall number of deaths would most definitely not overwhelm anything at all, and given the dis-use of the emergenc

> the single digit percentage uptick in the overall number of deaths would most definitely not overwhelm anything at all, and given the dis-use of the emergency hospital capacity and reduced hospital and ICU admissions over the past few days, crowding in the hospitals seems like a load balancing problem to me. Deaths lag admissions by about 15 days. Deaths are not the only outcome, some people will be in ITU for a few weeks but not dying. They'll then be transferred to ordinary wards, and then back home or to a care home. Reduced hospital admissions is a bad thing -- we know if someone's having a stroke they need care as soon as possible. If people are having stroke but staying away from hospital we're going to find a bunch of people dying away from hospital, or a bunch of people with long term preventable disability. > And if anything, I would not be surprised if the official figures _overstate_ the death toll. Dr. Birx mentioned in the presser the other day that everyone who died _with_ C19 is counted as a C19 fatality, even if they did not die _of_ C19. Died of cancer but also have C19? You'll be counted as a C19 fatality. This is such a frustrating misunderstanding of what's actually happening. We count flu deaths the same way. But here you're not saying that we overcount flu deaths, you're looking for anything so you can say "covid-19 isn't that bad". Because of the way covid-19 deaths are counted it's likely they're being undercounted at the moment. A certifier has to say to the best of their knowledge and experience that covid-19 was a contributory factor in the death. That's hard to do when so few people are being tested. > Died of cancer but also have C19? You'll be counted as a C19 fatality. Firstly, that's untrue. See for example this page which talks about the significant under, not over, counting of covid-19 deaths. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/more-2-200-coronavirus-deaths-nursing-homes-federal-government-isn-n1181026 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/more-2-200-coronavirus-... The term you need is "excess mortality", and we know that there's a lot of excess mortality at the moment. What's causing that?