No. You are incorrect. Covid deaths have NOT been counted like flu. It's pretty simple. In that past you had to have clinical symptoms present in addition to laboratory positive tests. Flu is still requiring that, while with Covid, you get 3 different options with the one used the most is simply having a positive PCR test - no symptoms need to be present. I'm not going to paste the conditions, you can follow the link.JohnStOnge wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 9:26 am Some notes on COVID-19 deaths data:
COVID-19 deaths are defined in a manner consistent with the way CDC has counted influenza deaths for many years. Here, from https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/faq.htm, is how CDC defines influenza deaths:
Here, from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/covid19/faq.htm, is how CDC defines COVID-19 deaths:Seasonal flu-related deaths are deaths that occur in people for whom flu was likely a contributor to the cause of death, but not necessarily the primary cause of death.
You can get an idea as to what a contributing cause is by looking at the death certificate completion instructions at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/blue_form.pdf. You can see instructions specific to classifying COVID-19 deaths at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvss/vsrg/vsrg03-508.pdf.Deaths are attributed to COVID-19 when Coronavirus Disease 2019, COVID-19, or other similar term(s) are reported as a cause or contributing cause of death on the death certificate.
It is not a situation in which everybody who dies with COVID-19 is classified as a COVID-19 death. In order for a death to be so classified, a professional completing a death certificate has to conclude that COVID-19 was, at least, a contributing cause. They are not, in the end, going to classify someone as being a COVID-19 death because they had tested positive for COVID-19 then their house got hit by a tornado.
I suppose one could say they should not include the contributing cause thing. But nobody complained about it when they were doing that with influenza deaths for many years. In fact, early on, people where trying to downplay the significance of COVID-19 by comparing the number of COVID-19 deaths to influenza deaths. Bottom line is that, based on classifying deaths in the same way as we've long classified influenza deaths, we were, over the past week, at a COVID-19 death rate of 91,823. When we consider that the highest point estimate for seasonal influenza deaths, counted the same way, over the past 11 influenza seasons (2010-2011 through 2021-2022) is 52,000 (2017-2018), it becomes obvious that we are, in relative terms, still in a very serious situation with COVID-19.
I just don't understand the psychology behind people insisting on being in denial about the significance of this disease. And I am distressed by the fact that the denial of reality comes mostly from the conservative side. The conservative side has become the "denial of reality" side on my fronts and, as someone who is philosophically conservative, it's hard for me to watch the degradation.
Covid:
https://ndc.services.cdc.gov/case-defin ... 2019-2021/
Flu:Case Classification
Suspect
Meets supportive laboratory evidence†† with no prior history of being a confirmed or probable case.
†† For suspect cases, jurisdictions may opt to place them in a registry for other epidemiological analyses or investigate to determine probable or confirmed status.
Probable
Meets clinical criteria AND epidemiologic linkage with no confirmatory or presumptive laboratory evidence for SARS-CoV-2, OR
Meets presumptive laboratory evidence, OR
Meets vital records criteria with no confirmatory laboratory evidence for SARS-CoV-2.
Confirmed
Meets confirmatory laboratory evidence
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/surv- ... ach%20week.
So you can see where if you overclock a PCR test and turn in falsely positive, it still counts as proof. Even though it's even listed on the CDC that a person ALSO can have viral debris from previous COVID infection for up to 90 days.Case Definitions
Definitive diagnosis of influenza requires laboratory confirmation in addition to signs and symptoms. Case definitions for influenza-like illness are nonspecific for influenza and vary depending on the purpose for which they are used. A case definition of fever 100°F or greater, oral or equivalent, and cough and/or sore throat is used by CDC in its U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet), in which healthcare providers report the total number of patient visits and the number of patients seen for ILI each week.
They monetarily incentivized testing for COVID and changed the rules in what constitutes a positive. As I've said before, if they simply wanted to catch all possible infections, I'm good with that, but you do not get to say two different metrics are actually the same.