In this WHO guidelines document: Guidelines for certification classification of covid-19 as cause of death, it says:
2. DEFINITION FOR DEATHS DUE TO COVID-19
A death due to COVID-19 is defined for surveillance purposes as a death resulting from a clinically compatible illness, in a probable or confirmed COVID-19 case, unless there is a clear alternative cause of death that cannot be related to COVID disease (e.g. trauma). There should be no period of complete recovery from COVID-19 between illness and death.
A death due to COVID-19 may not be attributed to another disease (e.g. cancer) and should be counted independently of preexisting conditions that are suspected of triggering a severe course of COVID-19.
Now, suppose I have advanced-stage cancer (to follow the example in the quote); and also, a lab test established with certainty that I am is infected with a SARS-nCoV-2 virus variant (so we can ignore the "probable" case for the sake of the example). Then some time later I die.
Now, ignoring the guidelines - it could be that I am an asymptomatic covid-19 carrier, who died from cancer; and it could be that I died from the combined effect of covid-19 and my cancer; and it might also be that my cancer did not have significant effect on my death and I died "purely" from covid-19.
If I'm reading the guidelines correctly, it seems like in my case I will be registered as having died from covid-19 regardless of how exactly I died, even if it can be reasonably established that covid-19 was not actually a contributing factor.
Am I misreading or misinterpreting? Or is the guideline just very expansive?