Sue, I think you're confusing/conflating two things here: (1) in classifying the cause of death in the pandemic it's possible to make errors, and (2) that this is being done deliberately in support of some great conspiracy on the public, usually by giant lizards or whatever else the fantasists are wont to believe.I accept the first of these: it depends on the interpretation of the data, specifically on the cause of death - for example, did the person die *from* or *with* Covid? A better estimate of the effects of Covid can be gained from studies of excess mortality (the number of deaths from all causes during a crisis above and beyond what we would have expected to see under ‘normal’ conditions): and this paper in the Lancet (https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02796-3) sets out the results, concluding that: “Although reported COVID-19 deaths between Jan 1, 2020, and Dec 31, 2021, totalled 5·94 million worldwide, we estimate that 18·2 million (95% uncertainty interval 17·1–19·6) people died worldwide because of the COVID-19 pandemic (as measured by excess mortality) over that period.”It’s point (2) I was describing as silly (and that’s putting it much more politely than it deserves). Are we supposed to believe that governments all over the world are deliberately misclassifying deaths? And for what purpose? There is, let’s be clear, absolutely no evidence for this phantasm; you have to be living at the flat earth end of the spectrum to take that nonsense even halfway seriously.
Richard Carter ● 1455d