Dingo
Member
Hello all,
A current claim circulating heavily in right-wing circles on Twitter and frequently in the comments of tweets made by the President, is that Covid-19 deaths are being artificially inflated in the U.S. This inflation is described as all deaths in hospitals being attributed to Covid-19, even traumatic injury deaths (e.g. car crash, murder etc.) The reason for this inflation is given as either financial, as Covid-19 deaths are paid more highly for the hospital than any other; or political in order to extend the lockdown. Obviously the political motivation cannot be debunked, however possibly the financial could be. I will however be focusing on the factual accuracy of the number inflation claims.
Covid-19 Deaths With Underlying Causes/not confirmed by testing
This portion of the claim attests that doctors are being improperly instructed to fill out death certificates as being Covid-19 when underlying or pre-existing conditions are present in a patient. Some statements from doctors are being used to back this claim. For instance, on April 8 2020, Chris Berg of West Dakota Fox posted this interview with Senator Dr. Scott Jensen (R. Minnesota):
Source: https://twitter.com/chrisbergpov/status/1247680994821509121?lang=en
Now the document that he was referring to is the CDC guidelines for certifying deaths due to COVID-19, which was linked in a comment by Chris Berg, and is available from the CDC here. Reading through the CDC guidelines, the scenario talked about by Senator Dr. Jensen is given as scenario III, on page 6 of the document.
The description given by Sen. Dr. Jensen is inaccurate as to the actual content of the document.
The instructions given are for two portions of the death certificate. Part I is:
For Part II:
It also notes that:
So, it is up to the attending physician, coroner, or medical examiner to determine whether or not the case was probable Covid-19, and this is a valid entry on a death certificate.
Here is a screen cap of the example that Sen. Dr. Jensen was referring to:
Now, the claim given by Sen. Dr. Jensen is that this is unprecedented and unusual for determining cause of death and filling out certificates. This is not in line with the Physician's Handbook on Medical Certification of Death, 2003 revision. This states on page 19 that:
A diagnosis of probable Covid-19 based off of the patient's symptoms and case history is completely appropriate, in line with existing policy, and not an example of artificial inflation of numbers. Snopes.com also provided their own rundown of this claim here and reached much the same conclusion.
Traumatic Deaths Misreported as COVID-19
As for traumatic deaths being misreported, per twitter rumours such as the following:
or
(Tweets not linked directly as these people are not public figures and were found via twitter search)
The common thread in all of these is a lack of verifiable details. All claims are made of 'things that they heard' etc. without names. I have been unable to find any evidence of a traumatic death being misreported. Any assistance in research for this one would be appreciated, but until a specific claim and not just rumours on Twitter are seen, this one can be discarded as simple hearsay and the internet at work.
The first person quoted also claimed the 'Covid deaths get more money' story. I'd appreciate some help if someone wants to give a rundown of how true that claim is.
As this is the first thread I've created here on Metabunk, feedback is of course appreciated.
A current claim circulating heavily in right-wing circles on Twitter and frequently in the comments of tweets made by the President, is that Covid-19 deaths are being artificially inflated in the U.S. This inflation is described as all deaths in hospitals being attributed to Covid-19, even traumatic injury deaths (e.g. car crash, murder etc.) The reason for this inflation is given as either financial, as Covid-19 deaths are paid more highly for the hospital than any other; or political in order to extend the lockdown. Obviously the political motivation cannot be debunked, however possibly the financial could be. I will however be focusing on the factual accuracy of the number inflation claims.
Covid-19 Deaths With Underlying Causes/not confirmed by testing
This portion of the claim attests that doctors are being improperly instructed to fill out death certificates as being Covid-19 when underlying or pre-existing conditions are present in a patient. Some statements from doctors are being used to back this claim. For instance, on April 8 2020, Chris Berg of West Dakota Fox posted this interview with Senator Dr. Scott Jensen (R. Minnesota):
Source: https://twitter.com/chrisbergpov/status/1247680994821509121?lang=en
Senator Dr. Scott Jenson: Well last Friday I received a seven-page document that told me that if I had an 86-year-old patient with pneumonia but was never tested for Covid-19; but some time after she came down with pneumonia we found that she had been exposed to her son, who had no symptoms but later on was diagnosed with Covid-19, that it would be appropriate to diagnose Covid-19 on the death certificate.
Now we don't do that in the middle of an influenza epidemic if someone has pneumonia and I do not have a test for influenza, I do not diagnose influenza on the death certificate, I will say this elderly patient died of pneumonia.
Now the document that he was referring to is the CDC guidelines for certifying deaths due to COVID-19, which was linked in a comment by Chris Berg, and is available from the CDC here. Reading through the CDC guidelines, the scenario talked about by Senator Dr. Jensen is given as scenario III, on page 6 of the document.
The description given by Sen. Dr. Jensen is inaccurate as to the actual content of the document.
The instructions given are for two portions of the death certificate. Part I is:
Here is a screen cap of the example that Sen. Dr. Jensen was referring to:

Now, the claim given by Sen. Dr. Jensen is that this is unprecedented and unusual for determining cause of death and filling out certificates. This is not in line with the Physician's Handbook on Medical Certification of Death, 2003 revision. This states on page 19 that:
Traumatic Deaths Misreported as COVID-19
As for traumatic deaths being misreported, per twitter rumours such as the following:
The common thread in all of these is a lack of verifiable details. All claims are made of 'things that they heard' etc. without names. I have been unable to find any evidence of a traumatic death being misreported. Any assistance in research for this one would be appreciated, but until a specific claim and not just rumours on Twitter are seen, this one can be discarded as simple hearsay and the internet at work.
The first person quoted also claimed the 'Covid deaths get more money' story. I'd appreciate some help if someone wants to give a rundown of how true that claim is.
As this is the first thread I've created here on Metabunk, feedback is of course appreciated.