FILE – This illustration provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in January 2020 shows the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The prickly orb is on every news and medical site. It’s all over TV and on flyers for COVID car cleaning. (CDC via AP, File)
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 11:12 AM PT – Wednesday, December 23, 2020
As mainstream media rhetoric continues to use the coronavirus pandemic to fuel their political agenda, a recent report from the CDC shows their arguments aren’t on solid ground.
Updated Monday, the CDC’s COVID-19 mortality rates show the organization isn’t clearly differentiating between coronavirus-caused deaths and coronavirus-related deaths.
The CDC claims it abides by the World Health Organization’s guidelines when reporting causes of deaths, namely by using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10 Edition or ICD-10.
The WHO created two classifications for coronavirus deaths, U07.1 and UO7.2, to account for the number cases where a clear cause of death is not able to be determined. UO7.1 is meant to be used in cases where a lab was able to confirm the virus was the true cause of death, whereas UO7.2 was for all other cases where COVID-19 was just part of a diagnosis.
The American Academy of Family Physicians pointed out the CDC only adopted one category, UO7.1, but classifies all coronavirus-related deaths under this code. They said this “leaves room for interpretation about when to use the code,” which leaves physicians without clear guidance.
The CDC’s Vital Statistics Reporting Guidance Report doesn’t provide much clarity, including defining the underlying cause of death as either “the disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury.”
Some coroners, however, are finding the broad description difficult to manage and report they are being expected to classify any death by any cause as coronavirus-related if the patient had or was presumed to have the virus at any point before their death.
“They were actually gunshot wounds,” stated Brenda Bock, a coroner in Grand County, Colorado. “The people had tested earlier in the month for COVID and because they did have COVID, our state Health Department is listing them as COVID deaths.”
For any patient, regardless of whether or not they were exposed to the virus or even tested positive for the virus themselves, there are multiple avenues by which a doctor can apply the UO7.1 code. The code is applied in some cases even when other factors are present, most notably influenza or pneumonia. In these instances, the CDC created a new classification of mortality known as PIC.
From February through the first three weeks of December, there were 411,477 deaths due to either pneumonia, influenza, coronavirus or some combination thereof. Of these, 288,287 deaths were coded as diagnosed and confirmed COVID-19-caused deaths.
Nearly 140,000, however, were said to have been possibly or probably due to COVID-19 and thus received the ICD-10 designation. In light of the overlap, mainstream media outlets have been reporting even higher death tolls.
On Monday, when the CDC had less than 290,000, the New York Times reported 323,002. On that same day, NBC reported 323,012 and CNN reported 322,765.
Despite repeated warnings from the CDC posted all over their website and included in their datasets, the media has taken these numbers and used them to fit their agenda, including perpetuating theories doctors have begun to pick and choose who to treat to try and keep the death toll down.
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