We know that coronavirus death counts are being inflated - we just don't know by how much. After all, how could they not be when there is a financial incentive for states and municipalities to report deaths as coronavirus deaths? And for some states, there may even be a political incentive...
Which is why it shouldn't come as a total surprise when a man who suffered a fatal motorcycle accident in Florida last week was added to the state's Covid-19 death count.
Fox 35 did an investigation where they talked to Orange County Health Officer Dr. Raul Pino about two deaths of people in their 20s that were labeled coronavirus deaths. When they asked if the people who died had underlying conditions, Pino responded: “The first one didn’t have any. He died in a motorcycle accident.”
When he was asked about whether or not the motorcycle victim's data was removed from the state's Covid system, he responded:
“I don’t think so. I have to double-check. We were arguing, discussing, or trying to argue with the state. Not because of the numbers -- it’s 100…it doesn’t make any difference if it's 99 -- but the fact that the individual didn’t die from COVID-19…died in the crash. But you could actually argue that it could have been the COVID-19 that caused him to crash. I don’t know the conclusion of that one.”
This seems to stand at odds with how the Florida Department of Health explained how they were reporting Covid deaths.
The state had told Fox: "A COVID death is determined if COVID19 is listed as the immediate or underlying cause of death, or listed as one of the significant conditions contributing to death. Or, if there is a confirmed COVID-19 infection from a lab test – and the cause of death doesn’t meet exclusion criteria – like trauma, suicide, homicide, overdose, motor-vehicle accident, etc."
“The only thing that I can say to people is the data I provide you with is the data we consume from the state. We offer you the best data that we have,” Pino concluded, copping out.
You can watch Fox's report on the motorcycle accident here:
And for those wondering about how Covid deaths are being counted, this April interview on Fox News with Dr. Scott Jensen does a good job of explaining just some of the issues:
