Thread by @_johnbye

The latest ONS report shows another rise in excess deaths in the week to November 13th.

All causes deaths were 18% above the five year average, meaning 1,917 extra deaths.

Still far above the highest number of deaths we've seen in any of the last five years.

And excess deaths are still following almost exactly the same curve as all measures of covid-19 deaths (due to, involving, and within 28 days of a test).

This is not a coincidence.

As usual, the vast majority of death certificates in that week which mentioned covid-19 had it listed as the underlying cause of death - 88%.

In other words, people are mostly dying "from" covid-19, not "with" it.

For the "ah, but why are there no excess respiratory deaths" brigade, here's your regular reminder that deaths "due to" covid-19 are NOT counted in the respiratory deaths total because of the way new diseases are coded.

Here's the real picture -

And finally, another misleading story from @DailyMailUK. They say "the number of people dying with [covid-19] is now on par with those succumbing to flu or pneumonia for the first time since June".

But that's looking at deaths "involving" not "due to".

Here's the real picture -

Deaths due to covid have been higher than deaths due to flu and pneumonia for 6 weeks now.

The Daily Mail's wording is doubly confusing as it talks about dying "with" covid but "succumbing to flu and pneumonia", when most "succumbed to" something else.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8…

The ONS report can be found here -
ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati…

Additional data (including respiratory deaths and data for previous years) can be found here -
ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati…