Topic: Death Certificates

A review of 2020 CDC data reveals that thousands of deaths attributed to COVID-19 involved patients with terminal illnesses such as end-stage renal failure or cancer. Approximately 10,000 patients were already in hospice care at the time of death. Critics argue that the inclusion of these cases, along with deaths from heart disease and accidents, led to an overcounting of primary COVID-19 fatalities.

Doctors in China have reportedly been instructed to avoid listing COVID-19 as the cause of death on official certificates, attributing fatalities to underlying conditions like heart disease or asthma instead. This directive aims to keep official mortality numbers low during the current virus surge. The hosts also discuss the narrative shift in the West, where the new wave of variants is being blamed on China's "re-opening."

Media outlets including CNN and Fox News utilized real-time death count scoreboards provided by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Skepticism is raised regarding the speed of these updates, as official death certificates typically take six weeks to process. Additionally, a linguistic shift is noted where the media now reports 800,000 Americans died "from" COVID rather than "with" COVID.

Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Chuck Schumer announced a FEMA program providing funds for COVID-19 funeral expenses. They encouraged families to have death certificates retroactively edited to include COVID-19 as a cause of death, which the hosts describe as a "double scam" involving hospitals.

A coroner in Grand County, Colorado, raised concerns about the state's classification of COVID-19 deaths, citing instances where victims of gunshot wounds were counted as virus fatalities. This dispute highlights broader issues with how death data is collected and reported before certificates are finalized. The discussion emphasizes the need for better public education in statistics to interpret these large-scale data sets accurately.

A controversy emerged in Michigan after a two-month-old baby with a severe birth defect, gastroschisis, was labeled a COVID-19 death. The mother publicly disputed the state's classification, asserting the birth defect was the primary cause of death. Dr. Joneigh Khaldun and state officials refused to provide specific details, citing physician judgment and privacy.

The European Union is drafting laws to combat a perceived "infodemic" of COVID-19 misinformation, potentially leading to the deplatforming of dissenting voices. In the U.S., Minnesota State Senator and physician Dr. Scott Jensen is under investigation by the state medical board for his public comments regarding the coding of death certificates. Jensen, a former "Family Doctor of the Year," claims he is being targeted for comparing COVID-19 to the flu.

The accuracy of the official COVID-19 death toll is questioned, with claims that the numbers are being overcounted for financial or political reasons. A report from Colorado highlights a case where a man died of alcohol poisoning with a blood alcohol level of .55, yet was classified as a COVID-19 death. Judicial Watch is reportedly filing FOIA requests regarding Dr. Anthony Fauci and the NIH to investigate potential mismanagement and shady business practices.

The Illinois State Health Director admitted during a press conference that any decedent testing positive for COVID-19 is listed as a COVID death, even if they were in hospice for a terminal illness. This confirmation of broad classification rules supports claims that the official death toll is being artificially inflated. The hosts note that this contradicts Dr. Fauci's testimony regarding undercounting.

The Illinois Public Health Director clarifies that any individual who dies while testing positive for COVID-19 is counted as a COVID death, regardless of the actual cause. Pennsylvania reportedly removed 200 deaths from its official count due to similar reporting issues. The hosts discuss potential financial incentives for hospitals to over-report COVID cases to receive higher Medicare reimbursements.

Dr. Annie Bukacek, a physician from Montana, highlighted CDC guidelines that allow for COVID-19 to be listed on death certificates based on assumption rather than confirmed testing. She argued that these instructions from the National Vital Statistics System could lead to inflated casualty numbers.

Dr. Birx admits that the current protocol in the United States is to record any death of an individual with a COVID-19 infection as a COVID-19 death, regardless of pre-existing conditions. The hosts argue this practice skews data by including deaths caused by heart or kidney issues. They cite reports from hospital specialists claiming that coding practices are intentionally inflating the mortality rate.

The hosts question the accuracy of COVID-19 death tolls in Italy and Spain, suggesting that financial incentives from the European Union may be influencing how deaths are recorded. In Italy, the percentage of deaths directly attributed to COVID-19 was reportedly revised downward. Spain's National Health Institute has instructed coroners not to perform autopsies, leading to suspicions that any death involving a positive test is being labeled a coronavirus fatality.