TRUTH: It is now almost impossible for anyone in the general public or general medical community to know the actual number of deaths from COVID-19.
That is because sometime in March US hospitals started testing all ER patients and every patient who died, regardless of cause of death, for COVID-19. Those patients are being included by the media in COVID-19 death tolls.
Yes, a victim of a car accident brought to a US ER who passes away will be tested for COVID-19. Two of the most egregious examples of misrepresentation involve infants. One of the fascinating things about coronaviruses from a medical standpoint is children are almost universally immune to deleterious effects. A study from back in 2004-2005 was conducted in which swabs were done in both controls and children hospitalized for respiratory illness. The incidence of coronavirus was the same for controls and hospitalized children and the conclusion was HCoV (coronavirus) infection was not associated with hospitalization or with increased severity of illness in those hospitalized due to other infections. Search NIH if you want to review these findings.
Obviously, COVID-19 is not included in that study since it was first identified recently. However, COVID-19 has not been associated with pediatric illness anywhere. Not China, South Korea, Italy, or Spain. So on March 29 when BuzzFeed.News and an Illinois paper, The Guardian, led with the headline "The First Infant Has Died In The US After Testing Positive For The Coronavirus," it caught our attention. The article goes on to say the infant's death was announced by Governor JB Pritzker and, depending on which article you read, either Pritzker, or Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said: "If you haven't been paying attention (to COVID-19), maybe this is your wake-up call." On April 2, CBS News reported Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont had announced "It is with heartbreaking sadness today that we can confirm the first pediatric fatality in Connecticut linked to COVID-19." He went on to say it was likely one of the youngest deaths from the disease "anywhere."
The problem is neither death has actually been attributed to COVID-19. On April 3, the Hartford Courant correctly clarified that all patients who die in Connecticut hospitals were being tested for the virus, regardless of manner of death, and that Connecticut's Chief Medical Examiner had not ruled COVID-19 to be the infant's cause of death. Just yesterday, April 18, NBC 5 Chicago reported Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said it is preliminarily believed the infant in Illinois did not die from coronavirus.
New York is also a source of great misinformation. On March 22, Sky News ran footage of a hospital in Italy. On March 25, CBS This Morning ran the same footage. However, they claimed it was filmed in New York. Citizen reporters by the dozens have recorded empty testing tents and idle ambulance crews when the national media has reported hours long waits at the same testing sites and overstretched ambulance crews. You can find those videos on Youtube, although they don't always make it easy. But there are enough people interested in getting the truth out there they are consistently reposted. At the time of publishing this link was successful https://youtu.be/MOBKyCY2esw. On April 14, the New York Times reported New York City officials at the Health Department had increased its death toll by 3,700 who NEVER TESTED POSITIVE for the virus. They were "presumed" to have died from it.
REVISED April 23, 2020. This is actually much worse than we thought. According to worldometers.info from January 1 to April 1, 2020 the worldwide deaths from COVID-19 were 46,438 as opposed to 121,993 for influenza. To recap, during the same three months, with the same social distancing, the same shelter in place, and even handicapped with a vaccine against it, the flu still killed more than two and a half times as many people as COVID-19. In terms of deciding to shut down the economy, there were 11 causes of death on the list. Influenza and COVID-19 were ranked a distant 10th and 11th. On March 23, 2020, a Vox.com article by Dylan Scott outlined COVID-19 risks by age group. CDC figures cited a death rate of 2.7 percent for those 65 to 74, 4.3 percent for those 75 to 84, and 10.4 percent for those 85 and over.
How does a virus that killed 46,438 globally in three months (and which about 96% of those 75 to 84, and 90% of those 85 and older survive) suddenly kill 143,984 in the next three weeks, according the same worldometers.info?
On April 2nd, 2020, the National Vitals Statistics System, which is part of the CDC, provided new guidance regarding the issuing of death certificates. COVID-19 was to be listed if it was assumed to cause or contribute to a death. For example, if someone dies from pneumonia, respiratory distress, or COPD, and has exhibited coronavirus symptoms, their certificate will list COVID-19 as a presumed contributing factor. Since shortness of breath, fever, and/or cough will be exhibited in all respiratory illnesses, every such death could potentially be recorded as a COVID-19 fatality. This certainly appears to be happening across the board.
We have never seen any disease handled in this way. Any medical professional who can provide an example of similar protocol is encouraged to share such a case. It completely defies any scientific method to work based on assumption. Even doctors opposed to reopening the economy should be upset because we will never have accurate numbers concerning this disease. To complicate matters further, if your city attributes enough deaths to COVID-19, it can request billions of dollars of federal aid.
