We’ll never know how many died

could have learned much more about Covid.”

A forensic pathologist based in Scotland, who asked not to be named, said: “We may never know the true number of people who die from Covid because there are not enough facilities in the forensic or hospital service to carry out postmortems on large number of deaths during this pandemic. “There is only a small number of forensic pathologists in the country. Nor is there likely to be enough provision to examine all the pathology (from these deceased) and test for Covid. No one has the resources for the number of deaths from the virus. Testing is for the living at this time.”

Professor Tony Busuttil, a retired forensic pathologist, said: “I am sure we may never record a completely accurate number of deaths from Covid-19, unless all who die have a Covid-19 swab test. Without this, the global incidence in relation to deaths cannot accurately determined. “The entire focus and energy involved in the tests have been on the living, and this is surely a better use of the available resources initially over-stretched.” Professor Busuttil added that Covid-19 might be missed as a cause of death, or included without a formal test.

“Some individuals who have died unexpectedly at home and have not been seen medically, and thus require to have an autopsy, have on occasions been shown to be positive for Covid-19. This is, however, a very small number of cases overall,” he said. “People who died in care or nursing homes, or at home, after showing symptoms, and who had been seen by a doctor directly or on a video link within the past four weeks, have had Covid-19 included in their death certificate even if they had not been tested formally.” Meanwhile, Dr Osborn’s call for more post-mortems has been backed by John Lee, formerly clinical professor of pathology at Hull York Medical School. He said that, while Covid-19 might be mentioned on a death certificate, this might be little more than speculation. He said: “In what proportion of Covid-19 ‘mentions’ was the disease actually present? And in how many cases was Covid-19 responsible for death? Despite what you may have understood from daily briefings, the shocking truth is that we just don’t know.”

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