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Covid-19: “Staggering number” of extra deaths in community is not explained by covid-19

BMJ 2020; 369 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1931 (Published 13 May 2020) Cite this as: BMJ 2020;369:m1931

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Re: Covid-19: “Staggering number” of extra deaths in community is not explained by covid-19

Dear Editor,

Can we really claim,without further investigation, that none of these excess deaths cannot be attributed to covid19? Underreporting must be suspected because lack of testing left doctors with a difficult decision :
1) As another responder points out there were early reports of GPs being reluctant to record covid19 on the death certificate https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8229169/How-elderly-Britons-car....
2) At least one hospital trust suggested pneumonia was adequate cause on a death certificate in a suspected covid-19 case .
https://inews.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-covid-19-patients-death-cert...
Finally, The BMJ points out the low sensitivity of the RT-PCR covid-19 test which means that 30% of patients with covid-19 will test negative. This likely led to considerable underreporting of covid-19 cases?
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1808?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=...

Competing interests: No competing interests

16 May 2020
Stephanie L Clark
retired
formerly patient rep
15 Brunton Place