Free Republic

Pennsylvania has removed hundreds of COVID-19 deaths from the official death count after coroners pointed out the state’s health department numbers did not match their own. Pennsylvania Health Department officials had included in their count “probable” coronavirus deaths in cases where they believed the virus was the cause of death but did not have confirmation from a positive test result, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Officials removed over 200 probable deaths from their official tally on Thursday in what they said was an effort to be transparent. “We realize that this category can be confusing, since it does change over time,”...

On her first day of an internship at the Allegheny County Coroner's Office, Rachel Geldard helped place into a zippered body bag the body of a young student who had leapt to his death from a Downtown building. "It was a little overwhelming, a little unnerving," said Geldard, a 20-year-old University of Pittsburgh psychology major from Canandaigua, N.Y. "But you get used to it." More women than men are applying for what Allegheny County Deputy Coroner Joseph Dominick calls one of the most comprehensive and hands-on internships in the country, where students earn class credits for working in the morgue....

Grand Junction - Montrose County Coroner Mark Young has received threats from angry people waiting for organ donations. He has heard rumors that physicians in Montrose want to start a recall against him. Officials at donor organizations have lambasted him for the potential damage he's done to their programs. And specialists have questioned his findings.