Posted on 09/13/2018 10:44:29 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
George Washington University is standing behind a study produced by university researchers that determined Hurricane Maria led to the deaths of nearly 3,000 Puerto Ricans.
The statement backing up GW's study comes hours after President Trump on Thursday morning called into question the death toll, claiming it was inflated by Democrats.
"We stand by the science underlying our study which found there were an estimated 2,975 excess deaths in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria," reads the statement from GW's Milken Institute School of Public Health, obtained by NBC. "We are confident that the number - 2,975 - is the most accurate and unbiased estimate of excess mortality to date."
GW's Milken Institute School of Public Health did not immediately respond to The Hill's request for comment.
The statement details how researchers came to the number, which has been accepted by the Puerto Rican government as the hurricane's official death toll.
Trump in a pair of tweets claimed 3,000 people did not die as a result of Hurricanes Maria and Irma, adding the revised death toll was "was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico."
Multiple lawmakers have come out strongly against Trump's denial, standing by the report's findings.
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló in a statement on Thursday said "it is a fact" that 2,975 people died following the devastating hurricane.
The GW report came to the 2,975 estimate by assessing how much "excess mortality" there was following the Category 5 hurricane, which devastated the island's infrastructure and resources in 2017.
The researchers assessed typical mortality rates from 2010 to 2017, then compared that figure to the number of deaths in the six months after Maria.
"Overall, we estimate that 40 percent of municipalities experienced significantly higher mortality in the study period than in the comparable period of the previous two years," the report says.
The study, commissioned by the government of Puerto Rico, found risk of death was 45 percent higher for "populations living in low socioeconomic development municipalities" and men 65 years or older.
"This study, commissioned by the Government of Puerto Rico, was carried out with complete independence and freedom from any kind of interference," the GW statement states. The study followed multiple other studies using different methods that also estimated the Puerto Rican death toll to be much higher than early estimates that put it at less than 100.
The count was statistical...not actual.
Watch for death counts to increase. /sarc
So they compared the annual death toll to the death toll during a six month period?
The most recent Hurricane Maria death-toll number, 2,975, comes from a computer estimate published last month, rather than a list of specific casualties.....reported by the Daily Mail
This is crazy. A snow storm or summer tourist season would have a similar result. The hurricane caused activity. And the aftermath rebuilding would cause deaths because people move around. This is not death from a hurricane, its death from living and moving.
I’m shocked that they didn’t come with a number that exactly matched the Death Toll on 9/11.
They actually exceeded the number which means of course that Trump is worse than 9/11. (hat tip to Morning Joe)...
“We need a list of names and cause and date of death”
Exactly! That should be Trump’s next tweet. Send me a list of names, dates and causes of death and attending physician for good measure. A copy of all the death certificates can be a substitute for preparing a list.
They all died from Thirst because the Puerto Rican Authorities hid all that US Taxpayer Funded Bottled Water at the Airport.
"Composite" fatalities?
Everyone calm down. All 3000 names will appear....at election time!
I thought the government of PR said the number was 64? So now the governor is revising that? Someone is lying here.
Smells like they took the number from 9/11.
So run the same estimates for every natural disaster during the Obama terms and we can compare.
Can we even cal George Washington a university anymore.
Right,let’s see the names!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.