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England to Revise DOWN its Covid-19 Death Toll by Up to 10 Percent after Bizarre "Counting Mishap"

posted by martyb on Sunday August 09 2020, @05:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the counting-where-it-counts dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for guy_:

England to revise DOWN its Covid-19 death toll by up to 10 percent after bizarre 'counting mishap':

Public Health England [(PHE)] currently counts the deaths of all people who have tested positive for Covid-19 among the coronavirus fatality total whether their death was related to the disease or not, an error which was noted in July, prompting the suspension of the daily death toll and an "urgent review" of protocol.

In other words, as many as 4,170 fatalities could be wiped off England's current Covid-19 death toll of 41,686.

According to reports in UKmedia, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock will bring all coronavirus fatality reporting in line with Scotland and Northern Ireland public health models, wherein a death is marked as Covid-19-related only if it occurs within 28 days of a positive test.

[...]

In England, of all deaths that occurred up to 24 July (registered up 1 August), 49,017 involved #COVID19. For the same period, @DHSCgovuk reported 41,143 COVID-19 deaths https://t.co/hKH0tTRb2W

— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) August 4, 2020

If the system is not updated, the total of roughly 265,000 confirmed cases in England would all eventually be counted as Covid-19 fatalities regardless of the actual cause of death.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Sunday August 09 2020, @09:57AM (8 children)

    by driverless (4770) on Sunday August 09 2020, @09:57AM (#1033727)

    Does anyone have more reports of this from a source that isn't Pravda^H^H^HRussia Today? I've checked UK sources and can't find any mention of this.

    In other words we could be arguing over something that's nothing more then Russia Today's creative misreporting.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @11:09AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @11:09AM (#1033739)

    How about this [bbc.co.uk] from Pravda?

    • (Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday August 09 2020, @11:14AM (4 children)

      by driverless (4770) on Sunday August 09 2020, @11:14AM (#1033740)

      That's a story from three weeks ago with a call for review. The other source given is The Sun... I guess whoever reported the story had the prerequisite big tits [thesun.co.uk] for a Sun story.

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @11:38AM (3 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @11:38AM (#1033744)

        The RT summary cites the twitter official accounts of DHSC and ONS, titty size unconfirmed.

        I don't get the RT hatred, the BBC is also a state broadcaster - one who's editorial independence gave way to a smug condescension which has seen it alienate everybody.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @02:35PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @02:35PM (#1033824)

          Russia bad! Britain good! Trump Hitler! Biden Jesus!

        • (Score: 2) by kazzie on Sunday August 09 2020, @04:41PM

          by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 09 2020, @04:41PM (#1033872)

          There are plenty of tits in Government; with a great tit as Prime Minister.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 10 2020, @12:20AM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday August 10 2020, @12:20AM (#1034103) Journal
          You got it half right. Part of the problem is that the RT is a state broadcaster, the other part is that it's a state broadcaster for Russia. I got burned by them back in 2003 during the Iraqi invasion and I haven't looked back.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Sunday August 09 2020, @11:56AM (1 child)

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 09 2020, @11:56AM (#1033750) Journal

    It is mentioned on Public Health England's own website, but it gives no details of any figures yet. It does confirm that the review of reported deaths is taking place.

    • (Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday August 09 2020, @12:42PM

      by driverless (4770) on Sunday August 09 2020, @12:42PM (#1033769)

      Yeah, that's about the closest I found, mentions in various sources that things were under review, which is what made me a bit suspicious about Pravda's hard figures.