I posted the following on FR multiple times last year:
23 May 2020: UK Telegraph: Why have so many coronavirus patients died in Italy?
The country’s high death toll is due to an ageing population, overstretched health system and the way fatalities are reported
By Sarah Newey
According to Prof Walter Ricciardi, scientific adviser to Italy’s minister of health, the country’s mortality rate is far higher due to demographics - the nation has the second oldest population worldwide - and the manner in which hospitals record deaths...
But Prof Ricciardi added that Italy’s death rate may also appear high because of how doctors record fatalities.
“The way in which we code deaths in our country is very generous in the sense that all the people who die in hospitals with the coronavirus are deemed to be dying of the coronavirus.
“On re-evaluation by the National Institute of Health, only 12 per cent of death certificates have shown a direct causality from coronavirus, while 88 per cent of patients who have died have at least one pre-morbidity - many had two or three,” he says...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/have-many-coronavirus-patients-died-italy/
following links to report in English:
24 May 2020: Fort-Russ: Italy: Only 12% Of Covid19 Deaths Actually List Covid19 As Cause
Report shows up to 88% of Italy’s alleged Covid19 deaths could be misattributed
The way Italy registers deaths explains their increased coronavirus case/fatality ratio, according to one expert and a report from Italy’s National Institute of Health (ISS).
Citing this report (in English here LINK), Professor Walter Ricciardi, scientific adviser to Italy’s minister of health said:
The way in which we code deaths in our country is very generous in the sense that all the people who die in hospitals with the coronavirus are deemed to be dying of the coronavirus […] On re-evaluation by the National Institute of Health, only 12 per cent of death certificates have shown a direct causality from coronavirus, while 88 per cent of patients who have died have at least one pre-morbidity – many had two or three.”...
This has been reported widely, it was even in The Telegraph (LINK), and yet no one seems to be engaging with it...
https://fort-russ.com/2020/03/italy-only-12-of-covid19-deaths-actually-list-covid19-as-cause/
I also post multiple times the video of Vittorio Sgarbi in the Italian Parliament - see below - but I can’t locate it on FR at the moment, and every video I’ve found is now “unavailable”, at least with the English subtitles. however, much of what he says is in the following piece:
9 May 2020: BizPacReview: Angry Italian politician rips ‘false’ virus numbers, claims ’25,000 did not die; it’s a way to impose dictatorship’
by Jon Dougherty
An Italian politician blasted what he claims are false coronavirus death numbers during a fiery speech from the floor of parliament building last month, accusing the ruling government of inflating figures to impose a dictatorship.
In a translated video, Chamber of Deputies member Vittorio Sgarbi of the Forza Italia party is seen raging against COVID-19 death rates he says are purposefully inaccurate.
“We are on the eve of April 25, and it is necessary to be united against dictatorships and united in the truth. Let’s not make this the chamber of lies,” he says, according to the translation.
“Not the 26th of February, but the 9th of March, the science, the science evoked here said that the virus was little more than an influenza. That science is what inspired this government, it is said, it was said, and documented, it was said,” he continued.
“Don’t lie! Tell the truth! Don’t make this the chamber of lies. Don’t also say here 25,000 deaths. It’s not true. Don’t use the deaths for rhetoric and terrorism. The numbers from the Higher Institute of Health say that 96.3% died from other diseases. Exactly the data, the numbers… the numbers. Say this, and it is the truth! It is the truth! Read it! Read it!” Sgarbi said, as another voice — presumably parliament’s version of a House Speaker or manager — tries to cut in.
He also ripped the government’s decision to shutter most of the country’s businesses in response to the virus.
The high Italian COVID-19 death rate has been questioned before...
The Telegraph reported as far back as March 23 that the way deaths were being reported in Italy were likely artificially bolstering COVID-19 fatalities...
“The age of our patients in hospitals is substantially older – the median is 67, while in China it was 46,” Ricciardi told The Telegraph. “So essentially the age distribution of our patients is squeezed to an older age and this is substantial in increasing the lethality.”
But, he added, the higher coronavirus fatality rate is also likely tied to the way hospitals report deaths.
“The way in which we code deaths in our country is very generous in the sense that all the people who die in hospitals with the coronavirus are deemed to be dying of the coronavirus,” he added.
“On re-evaluation by the National Institute of Health, only 12 percent of death certificates have shown a direct causality from coronavirus, while 88 percent of patients who have died have at least one pre-morbidity – many had two or three,” he continued.
The same thing is occurring in the United States.
Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been blamed for artificially inflating the coronavirus fatality rate in the U.S., some say in order to justify the government’s stay-at-home strategy, which has led to the loss of tens of millions of jobs and the near-destruction of the economy.
The guidance states:
“A confirmed case or death is defined by meeting confirmatory laboratory evidence for COVID-19. A probable case or death is defined by i) meeting clinical criteria AND epidemiologic evidence with no confirmatory laboratory testing performed for COVID-19; or ii) meeting presumptive laboratory evidence AND either clinical criteria OR epidemiologic evidence; or iii) meeting vital records criteria with no confirmatory laboratory testing performed for COVID19”…”
So, in other words, if someone with other co-morbidities catches coronavirus or is suspected of catching it and dies, that death is counted as a COVID-19 fatality, even if the underlying cause of death was really due to a pre-existing condition.
Hence, the inflated figures, which is what Sgarbi was talking about.
“Let us be united in liberation against hypocrisy and lies, against falsifications, against the false numbers that are given to terrorize Italians. The 25,000 dead, as Professor Bassetti [infectious disease specialist] said, died of heart attacks, cancer and other,” Sgarbi noted further.
“Let’s not use them to humiliate Italy. Let’s not use them to give citizens false news. Give the numbers, check them out, and I challenge you before a jury of honor, Trizzino, to look at the numbers.”
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/05/09/angry-italian-politician-rips-false-virus-numbers-claims-25000-did-not-die-its-a-way-to-impose-dictatorship-918805/
maybe someone can find a video with subtitles that works.
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