Social media users have incorrectly shared reports claiming that the changes the UK government introduced in August on how it counts COVID-19 deaths are a ‘scam’ to artificially increase figures.
The post, which was uploaded on January 11 and shared more than 350 times, has three screenshots from a British government blog titled “Behind the Headlines: The Death of COVID-19”.
The caption reads: “NOW LADIES AND GENTLEMEN IF YOU GO A POSITIVE TEST WITHIN 60 DAYS, IT IS NOW GOING TO CLOSE IT AS A SLAUGHTERED DEATH ON YOUR DEATH CERTIFICATE IN ENGLAND (SCOTLAND STAYS WITHIN 28 DAYS) … THAT’S ALL THAT’S ABOUT WORKING UP THE DEATH FIGURES – YOU STILL FEEL FRAUD !! #WAKEUP “(here).
A similar claim was shared on January 12 with the caption: “DEATH FOR ANY REASON WITHIN 60 DAYS OF POSITIVE TEST. SCAM!” (Here).
However, a change by the government in the way it recorded COVID-19 deaths is not an indication of a scam.
First, the government announced the new indicators on 12 August 2020, so the change in methodology is not related to COVID-19 deaths during the recent increase in cases.
Second, the change was made to provide two sets of data for analysis, not to increase the numbers.
Between April and August 2020, the government in England reported all deaths after a positive test as a coronavirus death.
According to the government blog, this decision was made to ensure that COVID-19 deaths are not underestimated. During this period, other countries in the United Kingdom used different methods of counting deaths. Scotland, for example, only counted deaths within 28 days after a positive test.
The government reviewed it in August and decided that all four UK countries would use the same method to count coronavirus deaths.
Government analysts examined all 41,598 COVID-19 deaths reported up to 3 August 2020 and found that 88% of people died within a positive coronavirus test within 28 days and 96% within 60 days after a positive test died or COVID- 19 on their death certificate.
Following this information, the government decided to make two measurements.
To monitor the immediate impact of coronavirus cases, it instituted a 28-day cut-off after a positive test to record coronavirus deaths.
To measure the longer-term burden of COVID-19, it recorded deaths up to 60 days after a positive test separately, adding deaths more than 60 days after a positive test if COVID-19 appeared on the death certificate.
This change reduced the total number of coronavirus deaths in England at the time by 5,377, with the 28-day cut-off, and 1,668 with the 60-day measure.
All this information is available on the government blog itself (here) and in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) (here).
VERDICT
Untrue. In August 2020, the UK government made changes to the way COVID-19 deaths were counted. It introduced two cut-off periods of 28 and 60 days after a positive test to register coronavirus deaths, compared to the previous method of killing all deaths after a positive test as a coronavirus. This change created two sets of data to help the government monitor the effects of the virus in the short and long term. The change has nothing to do with the high mortality rates seen during the increase in cases in December 2020 and January 2021.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.