‘That’s like having a widow maker heart attack and a cold, then have the cold be used as the cause of death.’
there is an individual on these threads claiming that citing the cold in your example as the cause of death is entirely proper, as it ‘contributes’ to the demise, and the 51,000 or so heart attack deaths listed as covid are correctly reported, as they are ‘precipitated’ by the virus...
in other words, he claims that they would be alive today minus the virus, echoing an acquaintance of mine whose uncle died at the age of 85 but who would, she swears, not have died but for covid...
I can see that argument in some cases. However, if a person dies of an heart attack while shoveling heavy snow, does the death certificate say died of snow shoveling or heart attack? Wouldn’t the same apply with covid? Covid might have contributed but so did the person’s diet, family history and lifestyle. I have never heard that bacon was the cause of death. A person with a back heart or massive vascular blockages will highly likely from a heart attack at some point. Even getting out of a chair.
My point is, way too many covid deaths are reported when covid is secondary to much more deadly conditions. Example, we had a local person in hospice with stage 4 cancer be reported as a covid death. Another person had covid in June and recently died, also reported as a covid death in the paper. Her family was very upset over that false report.