The US is Dramatically Overcounting Coronavirus Deaths

[Legion]

Over 86,500 people have reportedly died in the United States from the Coronavirus, and the fear generated by those deaths is driving the public policy debate.

But that number is a dramatic overcount. Our metrics include deaths that have nothing to do with the virus.

The problem is even worse as the Centers for Disease Control over counts even some of these cases and the government has created financial incentives for this misreporting.

Relying on these flawed numbers is destroying businesses and jobs and costing lives.

“The case definition is very simplistic,” Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of Illinois Department of Public Health, explains.

“It means, at the time of death, it was a COVID positive diagnosis. That means, that if you were in hospice and had already been given a few weeks to live, and then you also were found to have COVID, that would be counted as a COVID death. It means, technically even if you died of clear alternative cause, but you had COVID at the same time, it’s still listed as a COVID death.”

Medical examiners in Michigan use the same definition.

In Macomb and Oakland Counties, where most of the deaths occurred, medical examiners classify any deaths as Coronavirus deaths when the postmortem test is positive.

Even people who died in suicides and automobile accidents meet that definition.



https://townhall.com/columnists/johnrlottjr/2020/05/16/the-us-is-dramatically-overcounting-coronavirus-deaths-n2568925

[Legion]

Still, these broad definitions are not due to a few rogue public health officials.

The new rules direct them to do this.

Unlike other countries, “if someone dies with COVID-19, we are counting that as a COVID-19 death,” as Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, recently noted.

"So, I think in this country we've taken a very liberal approach to mortality. And I think the reporting here has been pretty straightforward over the last five to six weeks. Prior to that when there wasn't testing in January and February that's a very different situation and unknown.

There are other countries that if you had a preexisting condition and let's say the virus caused you to go to the ICU and then have a heart or kidney problem some countries are recording as a heart issue or a kidney issue and not a COVID-19 death. Right now we are still recording it and we will I mean the great thing about having forms that come in and a form that has the ability to market as COVID-19 infection the intent is right now that those if someone dies with COVID-19 we are counting that as a COVID-19 death".


https://townhall.com/columnists/johnrlottjr/2020/05/16/the-us-is-dramatically-overcounting-coronavirus-deaths-n2568925

[Legion]

Classifications go beyond even these broad categories.

Blue York is classifying cases as coronavirus deaths even when postmortem tests have been negative.

Despite negative tests, classifications are based on symptoms, even though the symptoms are often very similar to those of the seasonal flu.

The Centers for Disease Control guidance explicitly acknowledges the uncertainty that doctors can face.

When coronavirus cases are “suspected,” they advise doctors that “it is acceptable to report COVID-19 on a death certificate.”

That isn’t just a theoretical issue.

On April 21st, when Blue York Shitty’s death toll supposedly rose above 10,000, the failing Blue York Crimes admitted that the city included “3,700 additional people who were presumed to have died of the coronavirus but had never tested positive” – more than doubling the number of alleged deaths.



https://townhall.com/columnists/johnrlottjr/2020/05/16/the-us-is-dramatically-overcounting-coronavirus-deaths-n2568925

[Legion]

Incentives matter.

When the government increased the disability compensation for air traffic controllers, a lot more controllers suddenly started claiming to be disabled.

When unemployment insurance payments increase, more people become unemployed and stay unemployed for longer periods.

When the government offers flood insurance that charges everyone the same insurance premium regardless of the risk level in their area, more people build homes in frequently flooded areas.



https://townhall.com/columnists/johnrlottjr/2020/05/16/the-us-is-dramatically-overcounting-coronavirus-deaths-n2568925

[moon]

Your desperation is palpable.

[Grokmaster]

The TREASON-O-CRATS and their LAPDOG MEDIA DO NOT CARE HOW MANY AMERICANS THEY KILL OR BANKRUPT WITH THEIR MORONIC POLICIES, JUST SO LONG AS THEY GET POWER OVER US.

[Legion]

WHO KNOWS HOW THEY DIED?

States are collecting preliminary figures on coronavirus deaths in different ways.

The counting challenges have contributed to public confusion and disagreement about the toll of the disease.

National Center for Health Statistics which are based on death-certificate information that the agency is still collecting, supposedly point to Covid-19 as a leading cause of death since March.

Covid-19 deaths are allegedly far outnumbering deaths from flu, pneumonia, suicide and other causes.

The exact number of fatalities from the disease is still elusive. Multiple factors have made it difficult to pinpoint.

The NCHS, a part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, collects death-certificate data that originate from a loose network of thousands of funeral directors, physicians and more than 2,000 coroners and medical examiners.

Death certificates can be subjective and contain errors. Still, these certificates create “our most comprehensive picture of lives lost to Covid-19,” according to the CDC.

Given the uneven state of reporting, it is hard to get an immediate handle on mortality.

Death certificates can attribute deaths to Covid-19 without tests, the CDC said.

“Ideally, testing for Covid-19 should be conducted, but it is acceptable to report Covid-19 on a death certificate without this confirmation,” the agency said in its April guidance.

Some of the state daily reports include only deaths for cases confirmed by laboratory tests. Other states include "estimates of probable deaths".

These unofficial state and county tallies are feeding widely cited sources on the coronavirus’s toll, including websites managed by Johns Hopkins University and Worldometers.




https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19s-exact-toll-is-murky-though-u-s-deaths-are-up-sharply-11589555652?mod=politics_featst_pos1

[Legion]

https://www.denverpost.com/2020/05/15/colorado-covid-coronavirus-counting-deaths-fatalities/