The COVID-19 Assembly , an organization in the United Kingdom, recently announced that it is gathering a team of experts to investigate all of the COVID-19 …
The COVID-19 Assembly, an organization in the United Kingdom, recently announced that it is gathering a team of experts to investigate all of the COVID-19 deaths in the country to ascertain if any may have been wrongly attributed. With over 126,000 deaths in the United Kingdom and over a year into the pandemic, there is still confusion over whether people died of the disease or with the disease. Those concerned with COVID-19 deaths being unduly inflated argue there needs to be a differentiation between the two in determining the actual fatality rate of the CCP virus. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus, causes the disease COVID-19. The COVID-19 Assembly says there is “increasing speculation that the official number of Covid deaths may be incorrect” as a result of how these deaths are defined and with the removal of existing procedures to registering deaths. The UK government made changes to how deaths are certified and who may complete and sign a death certificate during the pandemic in passing the Coronavirus Act 2020 in March of last year. Prior to the pandemic, in England and Wales, a death that was due to a notifiable disease such as COVID-19 required an inquest to be held before officially registering it. A notifiable disease is any infectious disease that must be reported to a health authority or the government. After the act became law, an inquest by a coroner was no longer required when it was suspected that a death was caused by COVID-19. “The Bill will modify the current legislation to disapply the requirement that coroners must conduct any inquest with a jury where they have reason to suspect the death caused by COVID-19,” the explanatory notes ( pdf) related to the act explained. In addition, the act allows a doctor who has never seen the deceased to certify the cause of death on the death certificate. “If it is impractical for the doctor, or if they are unable to do so another doctor can state the cause of death to the best of their knowledge and belief and this certificate can be delivered to the Registrar to enable the death to be registered. Paragraph 4 also allows a doctor to sign the MCCD [medical certificate of cause of death] of a deceased person who was not attended personally during their last illness by a doctor, if the doctor can state cause of death to the best of their knowledge and belief.
