Dödligt virus från Kina orsakar panik (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19)

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is accompanied by an ever-rising death toll attributed to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but questions have persisted regarding deaths formally attributed to COVID-19. We aimed to provide an independent review of clinical features of patients who died during hospitalisation with a positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 and relate these to the reported cause of death. Between 23 March and 28 April 2020, a total of 162 patients with a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR died in our NHS trust. COVID-19 infection was documented as the direct cause of death in 150 (93%). Review of the records revealed 138 (92%) patients had pulmonary infiltrates on chest radiography, and 146 (97%) required oxygen therapy. This retrospective review of cause of death has demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of hospitalised patients with positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR died as a direct consequence of COVID-19 infection.

It’s being claimed that the true number of deaths caused by COVID-19 in England and Wales is ‘only’ around 17,000 people. The claim is based on ONS data on the number of coronavirus deaths where no other health conditions were noted on the death certificate. However, as James Tucker explains, to suggest that figure represents the real extent of deaths from the virus is both factually incorrect and highly misleading.

Since the start of the pandemic around nine in 10 deaths involving COVID-19 have been due to COVID-19. Therefore, COVID-19 initiated the train of events directly leading to death for more than 140,000 people.

So why are some people saying only 17,000 people have really died from coronavirus? These spurious claims draw on a Freedom Of Information request published by us last year, which asked for mortality figures where COVID-19 was the sole cause of death. However, taking this to mean the ‘true’ number of people dying from COVID-19 misses some crucial context.

Regardless of the cause of death, it is very common for the person dying to have a pre-existing health condition of some sort, but this does not mean that the person was at imminent risk of dying from that condition, or even considered to have a reduced life expectancy.

For those people dying from COVID-19, the most common pre-existing condition was diabetes. Diabetes is a chronic condition, that is serious and may make a person more vulnerable to other health problems, but this does not mean they were at risk of dying from it.[