The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to which the world has relied on for COVID-19 direction and guidance for months, released very informative data late last week. Albeit informative, it once again raises confusion as to what message we as the vulnerable, disease spreading population should take away from it. In its report, the CDC writes “only 6% of deaths have COVID-19 as the only cause mentioned, revealing that 94% of patients have died from coronavirus also had other ‘health conditions and contributing causes.”
Accompanying a table-graph, the report reads:
Table 3 shows the types of health conditions and contributing causes mentioned in conjunction with deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.
“On average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.” That is an astounding insight into the health and wellness of those who perished. The top underlying medical conditions which were linked to the coronavirus-reported deaths were Influenza and pneumonia, respiratory failure, hypertensive disease, diabetes, vascular and unspecified dementia, cardiac arrest, heart failure, renal failure, intentional and unintentional injury, poisoning, and other adverse events and finally, other medical conditions.
The new, updated information appears to be based on death certificates, which the CDC says are the most accurate and reliable source of data. “Death certificates reportedly contain information that is not available anywhere else and includes comorbid conditions, race and ethnicity and place of death” reported Chicago’s WGN News.
According to the CDC, the death counts “may not match counts from other sources, such as numbers from county health departments, because death certificates take time to be completed, states report at different rates, it takes officials extra time to code COVID-19 deaths, and because other reporting systems use different definitions or methods for counting deaths” writes WGN.
Also of note, the CDC made “that provisional data is not yet complete, provisional counts are not final and are subject to change, and that death counts should not be compared across states.”