It has always been difficult to get statistics on people killed by different causes, and it’s only gotten harder during a global pandemic. Recently, the official number of people in the United States killed by Covid-19 has been called into question. There are many reasons why this is.
One reason for the uncertainty regarding the death count of the virus is that deaths can be wrongly recorded. A quote states,”the immediate cause of death might be listed as respiratory distress, with the second line reading ‘due to COVID-19.’ Contributing factors such as heart disease, diabetes or high blood pressure would then be listed further down. This has led to some confusion by people arguing that the ‘real’ cause of death was heart disease or diabetes, Aiken said, but that’s not the case.” This means that the true cause of death can be unclear when the patient already has some other condition.
Another reason the true mortality rate is a bit foggy is that Covid-19 can kill indirectly as well. A quote on the subject reads,”A study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology did find that nine major hospitals saw a 38% drop in emergency visits for a particular kind of heart attack in March. That suggests that people really are delaying or avoiding medical care, which could mean that some of them die of preventable causes.” This quote tells us that because of Covid-19, people are avoiding hospitals for fear of catching the virus, and as a result, some of them are dying, and their death is included in the unusually high death rate.
In conclusion, the actual death count of the Corona virus is difficult to find. This can be because of confusion about the cause of death, and because of people staying at home in medical emergencies because of the virus outside.