Guest post by Tom Blumer
2. As GWP noted on Tuesday May 19, New Jersey reduced its death toll by 1,400 at nursing homes from its official tally. The new coronavirus death total for New Jersey’s long-term care (LTC) facilities, which was lowered from 5,700 to 4,295. This funny math was used to make the Democrat state leaders look better as the death toll in the Garden State continued to climb.
– The article quoted Illinois’ Director of Public Health, who admitted that “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.”
– In two of the hardest-hit counties in Michigan, “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.”
– “The (CDC’s) rules direct them to do this.” Deborah Birx has acknowledged that “if someone dies with COVID-19, we are counting that as a COVID-19 death.” This practice is not consistent with what other countries are doing, nor is it consistent with how CDC told localities to document causes of death before the Chinese virus appeared.
– Beyond that, Lott and Allen note that New York State “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.” Further the CDC has “advise(d) doctors that “it is acceptable to report COVID-19 on a death certificate” even if the virus’s involvement is only “suspected”! In April, apparently encouraged by this guidance, New York State added “3,700 additional people who were presumed to have died of the coronavirus but had never tested positive.” Even without evidence of positive tests, Johns Hopkins added these deaths to its Dashboard.