https://todnewman.com/covid-19-special-report-analyzing-claims-of-inflated-us-covid-deaths-4-10-2020/ CATEGORIES Sat, 11 Apr 2020 23:07:58 +0000 hourly 1 https://todnewman.com/covid-19-special-report-analyzing-claims-of-inflated-us-covid-deaths-4-10-2020/#comment-27 Sat, 11 Apr 2020 23:07:58 +0000 http://todnewman.com/?p=403#comment-27 Another excellent post. Having some unbiased data is really appreciated. This has been a question on my mind—not as the result of news media—but comparing the current surge in hospitalizations and deaths to an average year. Few thoughts:
1. I have been hearing reports that heart disease deaths may be increasing in NYC this year and the heart muscle may be susceptible to attack by COVID-19 based on the presence of the ACE2 receptors which are apparently the target of the virus’s spike protein. So, it may be that the death rate is being underreported.
2. Hopefully social distancing will keep the death total down—within or below the range of the yearly flu—but this may well be distorted because of course a flu year doesn’t require a national shutdown. Once the data is in it would be interesting to see if flu deaths are down. Might provide another dataset with better background data to evaluate the effectiveness of social distancing.
3. I wonder if the death rate from other causes for the rest of the year and next couple years is effected. COVID-19—with its apparent targeting of the older segment of the population and people with underlying health conditions may be accelerating deaths of people that would have died from other causes in the following couple years. This could show up in the data.

]]>