USA Today quickly claimed that people were saying the deaths weren't caused by Covid-19, and it was a conspiracy theory.
But what I was hearing was simply that Covid-19 was mainly striking down people who were not otherwise healthy. While they might be dying from Covid, most were already weakened by something else.
Here is what CDC wrote:
For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death. The number of deaths with each condition or cause is shown for all deaths and by age groups.
But it turns out Bloomberg wrote about the same stats from Italy back in May, and guess what? 96% of those who died had co-morbidities, also known as pre-existing conditions. Sixty per cent of those who died had 3 or more preexisting illnesses. And the average age at death was 80:
- "Italy Says 96% of [Corona] Virus Fatalities Suffered From Other Illnesses.
- Virus killing mostly older Italians with previous conditions
- Only 1.1% of fatalities were under 50, with average age of 80"
3 comments:
I don't know if you've seen it or not, but Peter Breggin has provided a report to support Plaintiffs in a lawsuit v. the State of Ohio and COVID-19 policy.
Three links; Breggin's report: https://breggin.com/coronavirus/NEW-COVID-19-LEGAL-REPORT.pdf
a copy of the Complaint: https://breggin.com/coronavirus/CASE-Complaint-Final.pdf
attachments to the complaint (627 pages):https://a014950e-d34c-4dc2-bb32-0d0ed826ba43.usrfiles.com/ugd/a01495_25a44d11ced94cc8b3c173e05303b9e0.pdf
hopefully these work . . .
This sleight of hand is not new.
The CDC uses two grossly contradictory numbers of annual deaths from pneumonia and influenza: about 55,000 in the annual leading causes of the death report and about 188,000 in National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) data used on the FluView web site to report the percentage of deaths each week due to pneumonia and influenza. These differ by a factor of OVER THREE. The larger FluView number is comparable to the current cumulative total COVID-19 deaths in the United States (Aug 30, 2020).
Based on the language on the FluView site, which may be misleading or wrong, the larger about 188,000 number was produced by listing all deaths where influenza or pneumonia was listed as *one* of the causes of death on the death certificate. As with COVID, it appears most deaths are elderly persons with other health problems. The respiratory illness pushes them over the edge.
It is likely, but again far from certain, that the smaller number in the leading causes of death statistics is a count either of death certificates where pneumonia or influenza is listed as the primary *underlying* cause of death, probably a rather arbitrary judgment in many cases, on the death certificate -- or assigned as the underlying cause of death by the National Center for Health Statistics or the CDC in some way -- not actually listed on the death certificate.
Full details here: The CDC's Contradictory Death Numbers https://tinyurl.com/y4empg8n
Agree! CDC has the death certificate numbers for flu deaths. During the 2017 season, the worst flu season in more than a decade, 6515 deaths were attributed to influenza on death certificates. Normally there are about 2,000 deaths due to flu as main cause of death certificates in the US yearly.
That 2017 year, CDC estimated 80,000 flu deaths. Someone later they estimated it at 70,000.
The methods they use to produce these estimates are not shared with the publlic.
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