RECENTLY one of our local MPs Sir Desmond Swayne has been criticised for remarks he made to the effect that he felt the figures for Covid deaths had been manipulated.

Not wishing to defend the MP in any way, but was he in fact referring to the way in which we calculate deaths due to the Covid virus?

For example, anybody who tests positive for the virus and then sadly dies within a month of that positive test, then that death is attributed to Covid, even though in many cases the individual could’ve died of something else.

This, then therefore poses the question did they die with the virus or because of the virus, if there was better clarification of cause of death, then I feel sure the deaths attributed to the virus would not be as high as they are.

To illustrate this point, looking on the ONS website it clearly shows that deaths from other causes such as dementia, heart attacks etc are down over the last year, comparable to the average over the last few years. Are these now attributed to Covid deaths?

Now I do not know how other countries throughout the world classify their pandemic deaths, but it does beg the question why our pandemic death figures are so much higher than elsewhere.

Could the way in which we classify them in this country be the reason?

All of that said, to pass the milestone of 100,000 deaths from whatever cause is a truly tragic situation, which we must all hope that looking ahead with the introduction of the vaccines, that the pandemic can soon be brought under control.

COLIN MOYES
Harkwood Drive, Hamworthy