How Many Die from COVID-19? Who knows?

Incivility is a curse of modern culture, unsurprising in view of the general increase in barbarism. Social media often looks like the free-for-all on "Black Friday." The shaming and virtue signaling war over COVID-19 is a case in point. On Sunday I posted a link to my blog on Facebook about the COVID-19 statistics. There was a reply from a young parishioner saying "You do realize that multiple hundreds of thousands of people have died from this right?" I responded saying, "You do realize there are 7 billion people on the planet and the global deaths are half a million similar to a bad flu season."  Then I went to Mass. Good grief, when I came home there were over 100 comments and the thread was so acrimonious (including a family feud) that  I went into my settings and blocked comments from anyone who is not a "friend." 

What I find puzzling is that many of these people who are expressing such concern over COVID-19 deaths don't seem to care much about all the other daily death statistics. The only deaths they seem to notice are from the coronavirus, about 42% of which occurred in nursing homes and longterm care facilities. Many of those resulted from deliberately sending infected patients back into those facilities where they infected and killed others. (God help you for your negligence Governors Murphy, Cuomo, Northam, etc.) 

Let's take a look at some of the data about deaths. This first photo is from March 9th, so it was early on and the deaths from the coronavirus were relatively low.


https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-many-people-die-each-day/

Since early March the death numbers spiked quickly indicating it's the most serious communicable disease. But that raises another question. How reliable are the death statistics?

The policy in the U.S. is to count anyone who died with coronavirus as dying from coronavirus. Think about that for a minute. A person has a serious heart problem or COPD or pneumonia or is in the last stages of cancer, but has tested positive for the coronavirus. They may even be asymptomatic. But hospitals are encouraged to report any persons with or suspected of having coronavirus as coronavirus patients. They receive larger government reimbursements for treating those with COVID-19 under the CARES Act. So there is an incentive to diagnose patients as having or being suspected of having COVID-19. Obviously, if they die, they'll be counted as COVID deaths. 

Think of hospital bureaucrats. What instructions do you think they'll be sending to medical staff? So it's questionable whether the death statistics can be trusted. There is plenty of anecdotal data from families and videos from Project Veritas in indicating that deaths may be overestimated. Others say they are underestimated. How can truth be sifted from fiction? Coronavirus has been so politicized at this point that I take every new data point about coronavirus from mask-wearing to the death toll with a grain of salt. The constant pot-stirring,-panic-panderering politicians  have much to gain from keeping everyone scared and tanking the economy. It's all about November!

As for the virtue signaling know-it-alls who love to shame anyone who doesn't agree with them, well...my strategy is a daily novena of Memorares for them.