Every day we see in newspapers or hear on news channels of how many people have died of COVID-19, and the numbers are rising. However, the general population does not know the fact that regardless of what disease or whatever caused the death of a person — if he or she tested positive for COVID at the time of death (autopsy) this death is being attributed to be a COVID-19 death. So, if you get run over by a car and die and test positive (no symptoms, no COVID sickness) you still get counted as a COVID-19 death! That’s why the numbers are so high! How can we stop them from counting this way and just report the deaths of true COVID-19 cases?
Elizabeth Comer
Valencia
Editor’s note: Understandably, many are concerned that the COVID-19 death toll may be overstated either due to political purposes or financial implications for health care institutions. With that being said, a joint study from Virginia Commonwealth University and Yale University, published in June by the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that the publicly reported COVID-19 death counts actually underestimate the death toll.
