Faking death from coronavirus?

[Anhedonic]

Just saw a story about a 21 year old from the UK with no underlying health problems dying of the coronavirus, and such as my mind is these days it got me thinking... is there any way I could make my death appear to be due to the virus? In other words, how scrupulous is their process for confirming a covid-19 death?

My plan would be to start pretending to be suffering from symptoms like coughing and shortness of breath, and given I am young the advice would be to self isolate and wait it out. I would then gradually escalate my symptoms over a few days - enough to raise concern but not so much as to be admitted to hospital - and then take n during the night. My hope would be that when my family found me they would presume I died of the virus. They would obviously be very upset, but it would be less devastating and easier to process than the thought that I had taken my own life.

I'm of course aware that n can be detected in an autopsy, but how likely is it that an autopsy would be performed and that they would specifically be testing for barbiturates? I know I'm indulging in wishful thinking here, but my hope would be that given the health service is under a lot of strain right now they wouldn't have the resources to be performing full autopsies for every suspected corona death and would rather just do a simple swab test. With the current rate of spread and talk of the possibility that large swathes of the population will catch it, there's a decent chance that by then I might have already caught it , so if that test came back positive maybe that would be enough for them to conclude a cause of death? Or would they be obliged to cut me up and check my lungs for damage?

I'm aware this is all quite fantastical as I'm desperately trying to come up with a way I could make my death more tolerable for my family, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts. Is this a total fantasy or is it possible a few circumstances could align for this to work out?

 

[calendulo]

The projecting sounds good, but sadly is not reliable as yourself already acknowledge.
More tolerable than N I do not know any method.
I do not know your age, but only way to get a good amount of viral charge or load to kill yourself. if you can go into a Hospital and you get many contacts, could be, but I am afraid this way is fantastical too.

 

[autumnal]

One negative of this plan, even in the unlikely event you were successful in fooling doctors/pathologists, is that anyone you had contact with beforehand would themselves need be self-isolated or quarantined and they would be worried or at least inconvenienced.

Additionally, any illness or death related to or suspected of being related to COVID-19 would be handled by dedicated doctors (when alive) and pathologists (when dead) and would therefore take these resources and equipment away from genuine cases.

One alternative to your idea is that you could tell others you are very worried about contracting the virus and ramp up your displays of stress and hypochondria before suicide. Then you could suicide and leave a note saying you did so because you couldn't bear the possibility of catching the virus, or seeing your family get it, or whatever. That way, while they still know you suicided, your relatives would at least be slightly comforted by the fact it was due to fears around the pandemic rather than other reasons for which they might blame themselves.