Dr John Andre Lee, a pathologist who was formerly clinical professor of pathology at Hull York Medical School and consultant histopathologist at Rotherham General Hospital, later becoming the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust’s Director of Cancer Services has spoken out about the way deaths from Covid-19 are being counted.
The veteran pathologist questioned the way that deaths from the virus are being counted, he wrote in the Spectator: “From 29 March the numbers of ‘Covid deaths’ have included all cases where Covid-19 was simply mentioned on the death certificate — irrespective of positive testing and whether or not it may have been incidental to, or directly responsible for, death.”
Dr Lee stressed concerns at the way the government have changed the system of counting deaths due to the Coronavirus, he wrote: “Normally, two doctors are needed to certify a death, one of whom has been treating the patient or who knows them and has seen them recently.
“That has changed. For Covid-19 only, the certification can be made by a single doctor, and there is no requirement for them to have examined, or even met, the patient.
“A video-link consultation in the four weeks prior to death is now felt to be sufficient for death to be attributed to Covid-19.”
He also stressed major concerns over Care Homes, he wrote: “Care home providers, most of whom are not medically trained, may make a statement to the effect that a patient has died of Covid-19. In the words of the Office for National Statistics, this ‘may or may not correspond to a medical diagnosis or test result, or be reflected in the death certification’.”
Concluding in his article he wrote: “So at a time when accurate death statistics are more important than ever, the rules have been changed in ways that make them less reliable than ever.
“In what proportion of Covid-19 ‘mentions’ was the disease actually present? And in how many cases, if actually present, was Covid-19 responsible for death?
“Despite what you may have understood from the daily briefings, the shocking truth is that we just don’t know.”
[give_form id=”1772″ show_title=”false” show_goal=”false” show_content=”below” display_style=”modal”]
Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
[sibwp_form id=4]
