The answer in Aus, at least, is 'yes'. People who are hospitalized in Australia - or die - are considered Covd victims - regardless of whether they were admitted to hospital/died with the disease or due to it.

Data war is the right term here - it's deliberate manipulation of the data for purposes of scaring/controling people. Later if they want to show how effective vaccines/boosters are then they can change it to 'died from Covid'! According to Dan's stats you could reduce Covid deaths/hospitalizations by 2/3's overnight!

The following is a great example - headlines in every media outlet around Aus yesterday:

What are you meant to think when you see those headlines? Covid is now scything down our toddlers - we all need to redouble our efforts to get boosters, increase restrictions! Of course it's rubbish - buried in the bottom of the stories (or not) is a small sentence saying the baby didn't die from Covid - only that she was diagnosed with it.

Here's an example of a similar misleading headline from today:

Hospitalizations skyrocket in kids too young for COVID shots

The first paragraph reads:

Hospitalizations of U.S. children under 5 with COVID-19 soared in recent weeks to their highest level since the pandemic began, according to government data released Friday on the only age group not yet eligible for the vaccine.

But if you just bother to read 'below the fold', which most people don't, you'll find this:

At a briefing, Walensky said the numbers include children hospitalized because of COVID-19 and those admitted for other reasons but found to be infected.

The CDC also said the surge could be partially attributable to how COVID-19 hospitalizations in this age group are defined: a positive virus test within 14 days of hospitalization for any reason.

What they don't tell is is what percentage of this number is actually children who went to the hospital because they were seriously ill with covid. Perhaps that percentage was 0, but we'll never know.