Official U.S. coronavirus death toll may be missing many thousands

[Judi Lynn]

Source: NBC News


Josh Lederman 7 hrs ago

WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump and his allies suggest the number of fatalities from COVID-19 may be overinflated, epidemiologists are warning the U.S. death toll is actually far higher than official statistics show, almost surely missing many thousands of virus victims.

On paper, more than 72,000 people have died from the coronavirus, according to an NBC News tally from each state and U.S. territory. But that number is likely an incomplete picture, due to a perfect storm of testing shortages, inconsistent death reporting practices across the country and a high concentration of nursing home deaths.

Dr. Matt Heinz, a hospitalist who’s been treating COVID-19 patients in Arizona, said he’s seen cases, particularly early in the pandemic, in which patients still waiting for coronavirus testing died of unknown respiratory illness that in retrospect looked very much like the coronavirus.

“Is that COVID? Is that not? In some cases, we can’t even go back and test for that, because it's been weeks and weeks,” he said.



Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/official-us-coronavirus-death-toll-may-be-missing-many-thousands/ar-BB13HYq2?li=BBnb7Kz

[roamer65]

1. All unknown respiratory deaths from November onward should be reviewed.

I think this bug got here sometime in November.

[SouthernCal_Dem]

2. I've always thought this was the case

What kind of post mortem testing can be done? Saved blood/tissue samples?

We need to be able to go back and get true numbers once Biden gets in there.

It's absolutely vital that we understand the full extent of the disaster even if it takes years.

If we don't have Congressional hearings on covid-19 for at least the next 10 years, then we've failed.

[Igel]

5. Most places routinely tested cadavers.

At least after January. The idea that there was transmission in January is well established; that it existed in December is highly likely.

"Exist" does not entail "widespread." So while conceding that there were probably some deaths, they were few. Compare the expected deaths with actual deaths and you don't find anything but fairly random variation (since "expected" is an average and nearly always results in a smooth curve, while real data is seldom smooth).

Needing the "true numbers" down to integer precision is probably a pointless exercise.

The thing about motivated investigations is you get nonsensical things like the Lancet article on Iraq war deaths. It was a huge number because a great number of the dead were infants that were never conceived. We mock pro-lifers for thinking every fetus is special and a human with rights, but that article gave human status not just to the unborn, but to the unconceived. In the rush to decry out the whale-shark of hypocrisy swam through the fish tank, unnoticed.

[iemitsu]

3. America is positively medieval.

[Brainfodder]

4. Florida in particular?

He did ask for less reporting, right?