Deaths Can be Counted as COVID-19 Years After Infection: CDC

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), so-called long COVID may be considered a cause for a death regardless of whether a person has not been positive for COVID-19 for several months, or even for years.

“When completing the death certificate, certifiers should carefully review and consider the decedent’s medical history and records, laboratory test results, and autopsy report, if one is available. For decedents who had a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection and were diagnosed with a post-COVID-19 condition, the certifier may consider the possibility that the death was due to long-term complications of COVID-19, even if the original infection occurred months or years before death,” According to the CDC, in updated guidance COVID-19 death certification.

“Long COVID,” COVID-19 is also known as post-acute sequelae. These are long-term issues that may be caused by COVID-19.

Evidence suggests that SARS CoV-2 is the virus responsible for COVID-19. “can have lasting effects on nearly every organ and organ system of the body weeks, months, and potentially years after infection,” The CDC states in the update.

Multiple papers were cited by the agency. One was published in the quasi-journal. found Some people experienced problems up to two years after being tested positive for COVID-19. Two others There were also roundups of literature available “long COVID.” The CDC referenced a U.S. National Institutes of Health. webpage More information on this subject.

One of the four scenarios that were presented to the agency showed that a 48-year-old healthy man was suffering from respiratory issues, fatigue and brain fog following COVID-19. While the man improved gradually, certain symptoms remained. Imaging revealed that there was heart inflammation.

The heart attack left the man with severe symptoms for many months.

The certificate listed heart failure; cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease; myocarditis, the heart inflammation; and post-acute sequelae of COVID-19. It was this certificate that started the chain of events.

The Epoch Times received a statement from Dr. Thomas Gilson (Cuyahoga County’s chief medical examiner), stating that the situation was acceptable.

“That’s kind of the crux of the matter—when I’m certifying a death is, can I really trace things back logically to the COVID infection and then the consequences of the infection,” Gilson stated.

He stated that some post-acute sequelae may not be listed by examiners in real life cases.

“The trouble with this is how accurate are the death certifications and COVID. This is a longer standing problem than COVID that sometimes, we don’t always … see people certifying deaths going all the way back to the real initial cause,” Gilson stated. “The longer I think there is between an inciting event and a person passing away, the more likely it is that sometimes those things don’t make it onto the death certificate.”

Two-thirds to three quarters of all death certificates are certified. “issues with completeness,” The CDC. According to the CDC, more than three quarters of all death certificates in 2018 had been issued with an “A” designation. “unsuitable” Oder “ill-defined” CDC Researchers: The underlying causes of death have said.

Is it too many deaths?

The CDC has acknowledged It does not include COVID-19 hospitalizations.

The CDC claims that its death statistics are correct.

Only deaths are included in the death count “in which COVID-19 played a meaningful role,” The CDC made this statement in a recent release.

Some U.S. deaths labeled as from COVID-19, though, are due to unrelated causes such as car accidents and gunshots. The CDC says that a death can be from COVID-19 even if a person didn’t test positive, provided “circumstances are compelling within a reasonable degree of certainty.” Researchers, such as a Danish one, are also interested in the topic. found COVID-19 death includes deaths where the deceased had COVID-19.

“Incidental conditions or findings are not supposed to be reported on death certificates,” A spokesperson for the CDC previously spoke to The Epoch Times.

Some deaths due to COVID-19 could have been caused by other factors, if a COVID-19 diagnosis or test was not available.

CDC had multiple occasions during pandemics removed deaths Initially, COVID-19 was cited as the cause. However, data issues later led to these actions being attributed.

Deaths Attributed to ‘Long COVID’

Already, the CDC attributed thousands of deaths However, this guidance might lead to an increased number of COVID-19-related sequelae listed on death certificates.

“There may be cases where somebody has (or believes they have) long COVID. They go on for years and suddenly they die of something. And then the doctor may decide to call this a ‘COVID death.’ That could raise some issues, certainly,” The Epoch Times was informed by Daniel Halperin (an epidemiologist from the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health).

“Now, when a clinician genuinely feels the person who’s got these ongoing series of symptoms started with a COVID illness, and that person eventually does die, well yes it could make sense to call that a death from COVID. But, statistically speaking, how many cases are there like that?” He added.

Halperin (who wrote in January That “misclassified hospitalizations obviously suggest there have also been miscategorized deaths,” The official death count will likely rise with the new guidance, which is something that the experts said would be very interesting to observe.

The updated guidance says that certifiers should only include post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 on a certificate if it caused or contributed to a death.

Gilson, an Ohio medical examiner said that the sequelae of deaths resulting from car accidents and other causes unrelated to the accident should not have been listed.

“Long COVID doesn’t belong on that death certificate,” He stated. “It doesn’t contribute to the person dying; they died from their injuries in the car accident. I would leave it off. It may underestimate how well we track long COVID as a problem in the community but it wouldn’t lead to an overcounting of the death unless the death certificate was filled out improperly.”