Quote Originally Posted by noteggs View Post
I get your point on that’s a lot deaths because it is. Also, I’m not trying to compare the death rates of viruses, but on how we count them. Not all deaths during flu season we attribute it to the flu even though present upon death (hence the extreme broad range reported).

On the other hand, if a patient dies with covid and who might be dying of CHF (among many reason) we’re counting it as a covid death. I mean one can make a strong case that heart failure was the leading cause of death. Not sure which way is correct or accurate.

But using the latter rationale, politicians will only use it to justify their actions (IMHO). Unfortunately that might paint a different picture on what we should do moving forward. Regardless, this virus seems to be a bad dude.
As I understand it, we get the 30,000-60,000 flu deaths per year figure by counting all of the people who have influenza listed as one of multiple causes of death. It doesn't have to be the primary cause. I've spent about 20 minutes on the Google to try to either confirm or deny that's how it's counted, but I've come up empty.

So I DO think we're counting COVID the same way.