Pennsylvania removes more than 200 deaths from official Coronavirus count as questions mount about reporting process, data accuracy

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 04/27/2020 | Sara Simon

[SeekAndFind]

HARRISBURG — Twice in the last week, Pennsylvania’s official COVID-19 death count spiked.

Then, on Thursday, the number plummeted.

Officials from the state Department of Health provided several justifications for the fluctuations, citing technical issues, lengthy investigations, and the addition of “probable” deaths — those considered to be caused by the coronavirus but without confirmation from a test.

But facing mounting questions about the accuracy of the count, officials on Thursday removed more than 200 probable deaths from the tally, further complicating the state’s accounting of the pandemic. Health Secretary Rachel Levine said the change was made in an effort to be transparent.

“We realize that this category can be confusing, since it does change over time,” Levine said.

“At times, there are things we need to review, and potentially revisit the way the data is being analyzed,” she said. “And this is one of those times.”

The coronavirus surge in Pennsylvania has posed major technical challenges for the Health Department, the clearinghouse for the data critical to make decisions about what policies to implement to keep people safe. In addition to inconsistencies around death counts, the department has struggled to attain complete and accurate demographic data for positive patients, as well as those who have been tested.

At the same time, the state’s coroners — tasked with investigating suspicious deaths — have grown increasingly frustrated by the Health Department’s reluctance to seek their help.

Some have said the department’s numbers did not match what coroners were seeing. Those concerns caught the attention of State Sen. Judy Ward (R., Blair), who is advocating for a bill that would give coroners a bigger role in the crisis.

“There’s a discrepancy in the numbers,” Charles E. Kiessling Jr., president of the Pennsylvania Coroners Association and coroner in Lycoming County, said Thursday.

[dragnet2]

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[dragnet2]

citing technical issues, lengthy investigations, and the addition of “probable” deaths — those considered to be caused by the coronavirus but without confirmation from a test.

This reeks like a 3 day old homicide scene.

[lightman]

Has a lot to do with Tommie the Commie feeling woke and appointing a mentally unhealthy he/she/it, the Transylvania Trannie aka Dr. (Dickless) “Rachel” Levine as Secretary of Health.

[House Atreides]

Every one of these deaths that are counted should have unique identifiers (SSNs, Names, Dates of Birth, Medical Insurance IDs, etc) associated with it or it should NOT be counted as a Covid-19 death. This will help insure no double counting, counting of phantoms or counting of deaths later determined to be not caused in part or in whole by Covid-19. Some ‘RATS (e.g., the Pennsylvania Health Commissioner) are playing games with the counts.

[bitt]

P

[null and void]

"Curiouser and curiouser!" Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English)."

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

The false positive rate was 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's or one old fart’s life, it's worth it.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

I thought all coroner’s reports/findings included all this information about the deceased. The Social Security Administration needs this type of information regarding payments to the deceased/family. The same for Medical Insurance companies re whether they have to pay on a policy or not.

Your idea of a standardized reporting form is the right one, but again, this is Democrap ruled Pennsylvania, a state which expelled the honesty and integrity of Ben Franklin a long time ago.

[ronnie raygun]

Hurry get them off the list they are looking into this!

[Vigilanteman]

Our own County Coroner (a Democrat, by the way) refuses to go along with the governor and his gender confused health secretary and simply reports the facts as he find them. This is making him very unpopular with the party while making him popular with the county rank and file.

[a fool in paradise]

investigate fraudulent billing