[nirse]

> It's not really acceptable

I think using these kind of terms is unwise in these troubled days, unless you are a professional in the relavant field, and if you are, Hackernews isn't the platform for the discussion.

An epidemiologist friend explained various things to me the other day: 1. hardly anyone dies OF covid-19 (cause of death on death certificate), people die WITH covid-19 (in which case it would still be mentioned somewhere on the death certificate). 2. A great many different statistics are generally gathered, but these are complex and need a lot of knowledge to interpret. These would include cases where Covid-19 was suspected to be involved, confirmed to be involved, prime cause of death (which is very rare, according to my friend). In the end, the general public is presented with a single number which indeed doesn't tell the whole story, but at least gives some indication of the situation.