The recent trash talk that the number of Americans who have died from COVID-19 is greatly exaggerated and that the virus is merely a political ploy, adds insult to injury to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have lost loved ones to the pandemic.
Their lives, in essence, have become political pawns.
The rumor being fostered is that these people didn’t die from the virus because they also suffered from some other condition, such as obesity or hypertension. So, in essence, the “true” number of fatalities from the coronavirus is just a fraction — the current meme is 6% — of the 185,000 reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That’s bunk.
What matters is that even if someone has an underlying condition such as diabetes or heart disease, they would have lived a lot longer had they not been infected with the virus. It’s precisely because they contracted COVID-19 that they are no longer with us today.
This is a virus that can cause fatal damage to the heart and lungs.
In such cases, a death certificate would very likely simply list the cause of death as respiratory or heart failure, when in fact, the cause of death is COVID-19.
What matters is that even if someone has an underlying condition such as diabetes or heart disease, they would have lived a long longer had they not been infected with virus. It’s precisely because they contracted COVID-19 that they are no longer with us today.
Few are dying from the virus per se, but from the pneumonia or weakened heart brought on by it.
A helpful analogy is a fatal car accident. Cause of death could be listed as heart failure. But we all know it was the accident that made the difference.
How a death certificate is filled out can have nothing to do with the root cause.
If anything, health experts claim the recorded number of deaths from the virus is probably an understatement because many never sought medical care.
Two reasons help explain this. For some, the virus hits very quickly, leaving those who live alone, especially, little time to seek treatment.
And second, the exorbitant cost of healthcare serves as an effective deterrent.
THE EFFORT to discredit the fatality rate drives health experts crazy because it minimizes the health risks of the virus and creates a false sense of security.
“It’s not 9,000 deaths, it’s 180,000-plus deaths,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci on a Wednesday morning news program. As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci is the face of the fight against the virus. That one of his detractors is the President of the United States, who calls Fauci an “alarmist,” is not a little disconcerting.
Behind the 6% meme is QAnon, a fast-growing group intent on undermining public health efforts, among others. In their efforts to downplay the virus’s devastating effect, the president as well as our own Rep. Roger Marshall, now candidate for the U.S. Senate, recently endorsed QAnon’s false claim about the mortality rate.
