Everyone dies from covid-19 now. No other causes are recognised. They committed suicide, it was covid-19, they were murdered, it was covid-19, it was an accident, it was covid-19. Covid-19 out here taking the credit for everything. Well, that's how the Daily Mail report things lol.
Yeah, I've heard that myth. It was started by some conservative protesters.
Well, partial myth. If they die from a covid-19 related disease then and they test positive then it's declared a Covid-19 death. But if someone had pneumonia, and they contracted covid-19 the next day, then died the day after, it would likely still be classed as a Covid-19 death.
But there's the other side of it. If someone contracts covid-19 and dies then it's usually classed as a Covid-19 death temporarily until an autopsy confirms. If the autopsy comes back with another unrelated cause of death, then it's removed from the official death toll. But it can take 2 weeks for autopsy results to come back so there will always be some figures that aren't accurate.
But then there's the other, other side of it. If a person contracts covid-19, dies at home without going to hospital, then by the time they carry out the autopsy they may not find the virus so that death gets classed as a non-covid-19 death.
Then there's the other, other, other side of it. In China if anyone contracted covid-19 but showed no symptoms then they weren't classified as covid-19. If they died from Covid-19 it still wasn't classed ad covid-19 because they were never officially recorded as a Covid-19 case.
In the end with lag time between contraction and death, and lag time between confirmation, we're not going to know the actual numbers until this is all over.