OAN host claims that the COVID-19 death count is inflated and that hospitals are “fudging the numbers”
Graham Ledger embraces conspiracy theory that hospitals are coding deaths as COVID-19 to make money
Published
Citation From the April 20, 2020, episode of One America News Network's The Daily Ledger
GRAHAM LEDGER (HOST): Why the Wuhan coronavirus death count numbers are simply not statistically valid. The number of death by COVID-19 in this country is utterly worthless.
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Problem number one is a statistical one and it emanates from the National Center for Health Statistics, the Division Of Vital Statistics, which is a function of the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC. These would be egghead, government, beancounter scientists-types who live and thrive in the Washington, D.C. swamp.
Back on March 24, the National Center for Health Statistics issued a new ICD code introduced for the COVID-19 deaths. ICD stands for "International Classification of Diseases." In other words, this is the standard for doctors to use in classifying death by COVID-19. Doctors are to use this guidance as their blueprint for classifying whether a person died from the Wuhan coronavirus or not.
Alright, so what does it say? Well, this piece of genius says, under the question "should COVID-19 be reported on the death certificate only when a confirmed test is given?" The answer is stunning. It says that COVID-19 should be reported on the death certificate when it is assumed to have caused or contributed to death. That's right. Assumed. In other words, the doctor does not know for sure. And that's where the contributed portion is relevant. Patient comes in, who may have chronic lung disease, but has come down with symptoms of the Wuhan coronavirus. Person dies. There's no autopsy. Just a death certificate filled out by the doctor who is following the guidelines as prescribed by the National Center for Health Statistics. So the doctor puts down "Cause of death: COVID-19" when it easily could —should — have been the pulmonary issue.
So why, why? Why the liberal guidance on labeling death by COVID-19? Answer: We're dealing with charter members of the Washington D.C. swamp who are attempting to justify the radical anti-liberty guidance emanating from the CDC.
Oh, but this warping of the Wuhan coronavirus death count gets even worse. Hospitals. Hospitals are reimbursed at a higher rate for COVID-19 diagnoses than, say, for example, the flu or for pneumonia. Did you know that? This is confirmed by Dr. Scott Jensen of Minnesota, who is also a state senator there. The American Medical Association is encouraging hospitals to over-diagnose patients with the Wuhan coronavirus, according to Jensen. What is more, they receive, these hospitals, triple the Medicare funding if the patient is then put on a ventilator. Remember, remember the push for ventilators in California that was so successful that the governor of California, in the once golden state, then gave away, he gave away hundreds of extra ventilators to other states? They are fudging the numbers, folks. Between the over-liberal death by corona guidance from the CDC and the financial incentive to label patients as suffering from COVID-19, these numerical values for the Wuhan coronavirus simply are not valid.