{"id":2457,"date":"2020-06-14T10:53:27","date_gmt":"2020-06-14T09:53:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.exeter.ac.uk\/covidsociety\/?p=2457"},"modified":"2020-06-14T10:53:27","modified_gmt":"2020-06-14T09:53:27","slug":"separating-deaths-caused-directly-by-covid-infections-from-deaths-caused-by-our-policy-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/covidsociety\/2020\/06\/14\/separating-deaths-caused-directly-by-covid-infections-from-deaths-caused-by-our-policy-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Separating deaths caused directly by COVID infections from deaths caused by our policy response (Ginny Russell)."},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ginny Russell<\/a><\/h2>\n
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Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, the UK has the highest reported rate of \u201cexcess\u201d deaths in Western Europe, if not the world. These are deaths over and above the number predicted for the time of year, but at the peak of the pandemic, almost a third were not due to COVID. What were these extra non-COVID deaths attributable to, who was dying and in what settings? According to ONS analysis, the big risk factors for excess non-COVID deaths are age, dementia and female gender. Non COVID excess deaths are higher in areas where there was more COVID -19, and there are more non-COVID excess deaths outside hospitals both in care homes and in private homes. Possible reasons for excess deaths are:<\/p>\n