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Dying All Wrong
Death Certificates May Not Tell the Right Story, and Why That’s Dangerous
2020 brought an unprecedented number of deaths to the human race, at alarming numbers.
Intensive Care Units filled rapidly with patient after patient suffering from a new horror: COVID-19. A wicked mutation of the same virus that causes the common cold, this mutation proved to be more than many immune systems could handle, ruthlessly shutting down respiratory systems like it was turning off the lights.
As researchers came to learn more about the virus and its aggression, they learned, too, that it was more vicious in those who had what are known as “underlying conditions,” meaning things like diabetes, kidney or liver disease, asthma, and even obesity. At higher risk were people who smoke, those with immune deficiencies, and even those with dementia or simply advanced age. The scope of existing conditions that exacerbated COVID-19 seemed to be vast.
The breadth of these underlying conditions led to some skeptics of the ferociousness of the virus to claim that any and all deaths were being chalked up to COVID, in fact. Claims abounded that, as a ploy to gain access to more federal funding, hospitals were falsely documenting nearly all deaths as COVID-related when they were linked to other causes.
