https://www.rt.com/op-ed/495421-inflated-covid-19-fatality-rates/"This means that someone could have tested positive in March, with no symptoms of Covid at all, and who then died in July, would be recorded in the official figures, as having died of Covid-related causes. Even if they were hit by a bus."
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More evidence emerges of inflated Covid-19 fatality rates – are we being intimidated?
21 Jul, 2020 17:20
More evidence emerges of inflated Covid-19 fatality rates – are we being intimidated?
A Rehab Support worker checks on patient notes as the first patients are admitted to the NHS Seacole Centre at Headley Court, Surrey, a disused military hospital, which has been converted during the coronavirus pandemic, May 28, 2020 © Getty Images / Victoria Jones/PA Images
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By Malcolm Kendrick, doctor and author who works as a GP in the National Health Service in England. His blog can be read here and his book, 'Doctoring Data – How to Sort Out Medical Advice from Medical Nonsense,' is available here.
This week we were told that, in the UK at least, anyone who has had a positive Covid test and who then died – from any illness – would be recorded as a coronavirus-related death. No matter when they die.
This means that someone could have tested positive in March, with no symptoms of Covid at all, and who then died in July, would be recorded in the official figures, as having died of Covid-related causes. Even if they were hit by a bus.
Even more weird is the fact that there does not seem to be any time limit to this. So, you could test positive in March 2020, then die in March 2040, and still be recorded as having died of Covid. I doubt this will happen, but it could.
To be honest, I have known something very strange has been going on with the UK data for some time. The UK has not provided any figures on how many people have recovered from Covid-19. In almost all countries, figures are provided on the total number of cases, the total number of deaths, the number of active cases and the number who have recovered.
In the US for example, there have been almost four million cases, over 140,000 deaths and over a million people have officially recovered. In the UK, there have been nearly 300,000 cases, 45,000 deaths – and no recorded recoveries.
In short, in the UK, you cannot ever recover from Covid. Once you’ve got it, that’s it, you’ve got it. This anomaly has been reported-on before. Here, for instance, from The Guardian in June.
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‘Britain is an outlier internationally in not reporting the number of people who have recovered from Covid-19 alongside statistics on deaths and numbers of identified cases.’
Why would anyone want to do this? You would think the Government would be pulling out all the stops to decrease the number of recorded Covid deaths. Especially as the UK is sitting in a pretty dismal place on the international comparison charts. Why deliberately inflate your figures?
However, it is not just the UK that is hyping up Covid deaths. A reader of my blog sent me an analysis of the WHO advice on death certification, which seems accurate. In his analysis:
1. If you die of anything and they suspect you might have it, with no tests and perhaps just because everyone else is assumed to have it, then covid-19 goes on the death certificate as the primary cause of death. Broadly speaking... unless the patient dies of something that is sudden and cannot be a long-term comorbidity.
2. If you have the same symptoms as flu or pneumonia you must be put down as Covid-19 and not as due to an influenza-type illness.
3. Any certificates that are in any way erroneous with regard to the above must be recoded to conform.
4. Any Covid-19 codes that are wrong should not be fixed in any circumstances
To me it looks like a recipe for a systematic over inflation of death counts, designed to disallow or circumvent clinical judgement.
In the US Dr Scott Jensen, a physician and a member of the Minnesota senate, has been notified by the board of medical practice in Minnesota that he is being investigated for public statements he has made.
Essentially, he is being accused of spreading misinformation about the completion of death certificates, and the overestimation of deaths from Covid-19. Also, that he has been comparing Covid-19 to influenza, in terms of how serious it is. This is considered ‘reckless advice.’
For pointing out the over-reporting of Covid-19 deaths and daring to claim that Covid-19 is no worse than a bad flu season, he could be struck off the medical register.
So, it seems that around the world the same things are being seen. A seemingly coordinated attempt to vastly overinflate the number of deaths caused by Covid-19, and to drive home how deadly it is.
For example, a few days ago, a new story hit the headlines in the UK, warning of hundreds of thousands of deaths this winter.
‘The UK could see about 120,000 new coronavirus deaths in a second wave of infections this winter, scientists say.
Asked to model a “reasonable” worst-case scenario, they suggest a range between 24,500 and 251,000 of virus-related deaths in hospitals alone, peaking in January and February.’
Where did this come from? It was a model, using exactly the same assumptions as that created by Prof Neil Ferguson from Imperial College London in March. The one that warned of 500,000 deaths in the UK. Only out by a factor of ten. Probably far more, because many of the deaths recorded as due to Covid have been, simply, wrong."