the balance sheet of The Covid-19 in England, which amounted to approximately 45 000 people dead, would it be downgrading ? This is the question that is raised by a study from the university of Oxford, who highlighted a possible overstatement of the number of victims of the new coronavirus out of hospital in England.
With 45, 000 deaths, the United Kingdom is the country most hard hit in Europe by the new coronavirus, and the management of the crisis by the conservative government of Boris Johnson is roundly criticized. The hare has been lifted by the university of Oxford, in a study entitled " Why no one can ever heal the Covid-19 in England – a statistical anomaly ".
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"The date of the test result Covid" at the center of questions
According to the method used by the health authorities in england (Public Health England), " a patient who has been tested positive, but was treated successfully and was able to leave the hospital, be counted as a death of the Covid, even if he has had a heart attack or be crushed by a bus three months later." When a patient dies, the central register for the NHS, the public health service to the british warned. The list of all the confirmed cases is reviewed each day to check whether patients are dead. So it seems that Public Health England (PHE) regularly checks the list of people who have at one time or another tested positive to see if they are still alive.
" PHE does not seem to take account of the date of the test result Covid, or the fact that the person has been treated successfully and released from the hospital. Any person who has tested positive for Covid, but which subsequently died, whatever the cause, is included in the figures of deaths Covid PHE ", raises the study. It stresses that it is time to "repair this statistical error leads to a surexagération of the deaths associated with Covid" and is proposing to retain the death outside the hospital environment that would occur within 21 days of a positive test. The authors of the publication emphasize, however, that it has not been the subject of an evaluation by a reading committee.
The Health minister, Matt Hancock, has called for Friday to Public Health England to " undertake an urgent review of the way death statistics are reported to provide greater clarity on the number of deaths related to the Covid-19 ". "Although it may seem simple, there is no method authorized by WHO to count the number of dead of the Covid-19," responded Susan Hopkins, a manager of PHE. "We have to remember that this is a new infection and emerging and there is growing evidence of health problems in the long term with some people who have been affected ", she added, considering, however, that " the time has come to review how are calculated the dead ".
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