U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Is Inflated

[Grayling813]

U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Is Inflated
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/artic ... lated.html

The CDC currently puts the number of confirmed deaths at about 100,000. But even the “best estimate” 0.26% fatality rate is a significant overestimate because of how the CDC is counting deaths. The actual rate is fairly close to a recent bad year for the seasonal flu. And though public health officials have been transparent about how they are counting coronavirus deaths, the implications for calculating the infection fatality rate are not appreciated.

[03Lightningrocks]

U.S. COVID-19 Death Toll Is Inflated
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/artic ... lated.html

The CDC currently puts the number of confirmed deaths at about 100,000. But even the “best estimate” 0.26% fatality rate is a significant overestimate because of how the CDC is counting deaths. The actual rate is fairly close to a recent bad year for the seasonal flu. And though public health officials have been transparent about how they are counting coronavirus deaths, the implications for calculating the infection fatality rate are not appreciated.

This does not surprise me at all. After the over the top reaction on the governments part, they need the numbers to justify their actions. Our government is at a level of corruption at historical levels and it is only getting worse.

[C-dub]

Of course it is, but I'm not certain it is deliberate. It might be in some cases. Probably not in most. What I think is happening in most is that someone with covid-19 died and that is what was counted, but not the actual cause of death. Some places are reassessing their numbers for this reason.

[der Teufel]

There are some strong arguments which indicate the actual number of deaths is actually undercounted!

https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... -counted1/
Perhaps, the best clue as to whether COVID-19 deaths have been undercounted or overcounted is excess mortality data. Excess mortality is deaths above and beyond what would normally be expected in a given population in a given year. CDC data shows a spike of excess mortality in early 2020, adding up to tens of thousands of deaths.

In other words, so far there have been a little over 100,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19, while there have been about 130,000 more deaths than there were at this time of the year in 2018 and 2019. Some of those are likely because people are avoiding hospitals and not getting treatment that they needed, or they got insufficient treatment because resources were tied up treating COVID-19 patients. Still, one can make a case that coronavirus deaths are actually greater than reported.

Me, I don't know what the real numbers are and I'm not losing sleep either way.
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