State Decreases COVID-19 Death Total by More than 4,000 And It’s STILL Inflated…

Death

An overall of 4,081 causes of death were declassified as COVID-19 casualties after a brand-new, but still inflated standard was retroactively applied beginning in March of 2020.

On March 10, the state’s Department of Public Health announced it intended to“update the criteria used for identifying COVID-19 deaths to align with guidance from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.”

Juggling Definitions of COVID-19 Death To Suit Politics

Massachusetts had formerly defined a COVID-19 death as anybody who had the infection listed as their cause of death and anybody who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 within the 60 days prior to their death. The 2nd group of individuals did not need to have actually COVID-19 listed as their cause of death to be included in the state’s inflated total fatality count.

Under the new standards, the DPH lowered the preceding period of time applicable for consideration.

Now only the deaths of people who had actually been detected with COVID-19

three days prior to their death– no matter their identifying cause of death– can be consisted of in the state’s totals. The modification entered into effect on March 14, per CBS News. In addition, 400 deaths were identified COVID-19 after formerly being excluded from the pandemic fatality total.

Ultimately, the state’s total variety of COVID-19 related deaths since the onset of the pandemic was reduced by 3,700.

Previously, Massachusetts had reported 22,944 deaths triggered by COVID-19.

“We are adopting the new definition because we support the need to standardize the way COVID-19-associated deaths are counted,” said Dr. Catherine Brown, DPH State Epidemiologist, in a statement. “In Massachusetts, our definition has consistently been broader than most other states. After a deep dive into our data and reviewing thousands of death certificates we recognize that this updated definition gives us a truer picture of mortality associated with COVID-19.”

This sentiment was affirmed by DPH Commissioner Margret Cooke.“Over time, our approach proved to be too expansive and led to a significant overcount of deaths in Massachusetts. People who had gotten COVID earlier in 2020 and died for other reasons ended up still being included in COVID associated deaths,” said Cooke.

This is the second time the state has revised its criteria for a COVID-19 death. In April of 2021, the department used the 60-day timeframe after previously counting any deceased person who tested positive for the infection as a COVID-19 death.

“The distribution of deaths by age, sex and race are not significantly different when using the newest definition as compared to the former definition,” reports WCVB.

The latest modifications make up an approximate 15%decline in Massachusetts’s COVID-19 death count.

H/T Timcast

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts