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I think everyone agrees that some people die 'with Covid' rather than 'of Covid'.
Our excess death figures[1] are still shockingly poor though. Some of those excess deaths didn't have Covid at all which just goes to show how badly the UK has managed the situation.
[1] https://www.ft.com/content/a2901ce8-5eb7-4633-b89c-cbdf5b386938 - 67,500
jellybaby-
Great chart on that page, I've been keen to see the data presented in this way for ages. It's the only way to get close to a like for like comparison, although there must be some variance in how even total death figures are collected and reported.
Shows that we are level pegging as worst of the developed countries along with Spain and Italy. USA meanwhile, by the excess deaths metric, is actually doing a fair bit better overall, though, it looks like they have never got it under control, suggesting its going to keep getting worse for them.
Poor Peru and Equador - they have had it real bad. I think I read that altitude can make it worse, which may partly explain the huge excess deaths there, compared to other countries with similar working / healthcare conditions.
Scrabble
Taken from a Daily Mail article on a Oxford study on this very matter:
"Using the university's data this suggest that 45,683 died from coronavirus than the Government's figure of 49,560."
So its true that its possible that somebody can be counted as a Covid death when Covid wasn't the cause of death but its not exactly widespread.