Originally Posted by
Muddy Retriever
Your examples only go to prove how ridiculous the figures were on the old basis. I seem to remember one day about a month ago where about seven people had died of Covid in English hospitals but the PHE daily count in all settings was about 100. It made no sense.
Where is the logic of counting every single death as a Covid death just because they once had the infection? It means that nobody ever recovers and the infection fatality rate is 100%. I once had a nose bleed, when I die shall we say that was the cause? I think I'm right in saying that you once predicted that the number of deaths from Covid in this country would end up being the wrong side of 250,000. I can see why you like the old method, you will eventually be proved right. But it might take a few decades or so.
You mention international comparisons. As WP says, they are difficult enough to make at the best of times due to different methodologies. But they become completely meaningless if one country adopts a system as bizarre as PHE did. The 28 day method brings England into line with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but I daresay it is still far more strict than many other countries.
The question I would ask is not why the figures have changed to make them look better but why they were counted in such an inflated way in the first place.
