- Should coronavirus deaths be included in the official coronavirus death count if the victim died only “with” the virus, rather than “for” that?
- That’s the question people are asking, in light of a recently revealed episode in Florida (which is now the epicenter of the US coronavirus pandemic).
- A young person who died in a motorcycle accident but was found to have coronavirus was included in the coronavirus total.
Anyone who has seen the historic HBO series The wire He will recall the story involving Baltimore City police officers and the pressure they faced from senior officials to show progress in the fight against crime, which inevitably led police officers to “alter the statistics.” . You could do things like report crimes or arrest more people for misdemeanors, and it looks like the cops are winning. Later, Detective Pryzbylewski becomes a teacher at Baltimore City Schools and realizes that there is the same story. Only that “playing the statistics” in that case meant “teaching for the exam” so that the school can improve the standardized scores of the students, it doesn’t matter if the children really, really, you know … learning.
In the meantime, is something like this happening right now, during the coronavirus pandemic, when it comes to official death counts? Perhaps, especially when you consider revelations like this from a local television news station in Orlando that found that a man was included in the local coronavirus death numbers … even though he had died in a motorcycle accident.
Dr. Raul Pino, Orange County Health Officer, was asked by Fox 35 News if two recent coronavirus victims in their 20s had any underlying conditions. The station received a surprising response: “The first one had none. She died in a motorcycle accident.
Fox 35 News then he asked the doctor the obvious follow-up question. Okay, if you died in a motorcycle accident, was your data removed from all coronavirus deaths?
“I don’t think so. I have to double check,” Pino told the station. “We were arguing, arguing, or trying to argue with the state. Not because of the numbers. They are 100 … it makes no difference if they are 99. But the fact that the individual did not die from COVID-19 … died in the accident. But one could actually argue that it could have been COVID-19 that caused it to crash. I don’t know the conclusion of that.
This is the kind of thing that fuels coronavirus testing and all kinds of conspiracy theorists, who use a situation like this to undermine official pronouncements about the spread of the virus. See, the argument goes: they’re altering the statistics, adding people to the death count to make the coronavirus look worse than it is.
Be careful about using instances like these (and you can find them more easily) to conclude that the coronavirus pandemic is being disproportionate. In fact, official numbers can easily be subcontract The total number of deaths from coronavirus.
Living science He recently addressed this problem, through an explanation that also puts motorcycle death in context: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have guidelines issued on how to attribute a death to COVID-19. The guidelines urge the use of COVID-19 test information, when possible, but also allow deaths to be listed as ‘presumed’ or ‘probable’ COVID-19 based on the symptoms and best clinical judgment of the person completing the death certificate. “
Dr. Sally Aiken, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, told the media that the idea that these numbers are being biased on purpose is ridiculous. Medical examiners, he said, are independent entities and have beliefs that span the entire political spectrum.
“It always makes me laugh,” he said. “Medical examiners and coroners are not organized enough to have a conspiracy.”
Andy is a reporter in Memphis and also contributes to media like Fast Company and The Guardian. When he’s not writing about technology, he can be found protectively hunched over his burgeoning vinyl collection, plus guarding his whovianism and binging on a variety of television shows he probably won’t like.
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