Doctors Can Place COVID-19 on Death Certificates Without Confirmed Test Results, Minnesota Senator Says
Anthony Gockowski | Courtesy of The Tennessee Star
Doctors Can Place COVID-19 on Death Certificates Without Confirmed Test Results ~ It is important that those who do not follow me on a regular basis understand that any information shared or positions taken concerning the current COVID-19 epidemic is not a suggestion to behave irresponsibly — putting yourself and others at risk. In fact, my family and I are taking all of the necessary precautions to remain safe during this situation.
What I am suggesting is that everyone stops taking what is being reported by way of mainstream media at face value. The media has always been a tool to push the agendas of those who control what is printed on its pages and broadcast on its networks. We must understand that rarely, if at all, are these agendas meant to serve our interests as a race or social collective.
I am sharing this article because it ties into some notices I received last week in which people who had gone into the doctor for checkups were being diagnosed with COVID-19 without being tested for it. I thought that this was odd and wondered if it was being done on a wide scale. As it turns out, doctors have been given great latitude in not only diagnosing patients with COVID-19, but even greater latitude in listing COVID-19 as the cause of death on death certificates without even confirming that the patient actually had the virus.
Why is this important? Because we just ended a week in which certain experts predicted the worst numbers in America thus far. It did not happen, but the prediction did create fear and panic. Playing loose with the numbers by doctors diagnosing patients without confirming they actually having it by administering tests will help artificially boost those numbers to keep the fear going.
The truth is that even testing positive for COVID-19 does not guarantee that a subsequent death is a direct result of the virus. This is an assumption that has been made far too often and too easily.
I wanted to share this article with you to show how the rules are being manipulated to facilitate the fearmongering. It is imperative that we develop the capacity to think critically and draw rational conclusions instead of taking what the media is force-feeding us. We need to develop at least a functional perspicacity of how things work in every aspect of living. We need to back those who are researchers and experts in these fields and committed to serving the interests of Black people. There is no way around it! ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.
State Sen. Scott Jensen (R-Chaska), a practicing physician, sounded the alarm Tuesday about a CDC guidance that gives doctors the authority to include “suspected or likely” cases of COVID-19 on death certificates.
Jensen said the document, which was sent to him by the Minnesota Department of Health, suggests that he could include a diagnosis of COVID-19 on death certificates even if there were no official lab results confirming the diagnosis.
Jensen made the shocking claim during an interview on Point of View with Chris Berg.
“As a physician, I received an email last week from the Department of Health coaching me on how to fill out death certificates and I’ve never really received coaching from the vital statistics agency in terms of how to do a death certificate. Basically, I felt like they were saying, ‘You know, you don’t have to have a confirmed laboratory test for COVID-19 in order to make the death certificate be COVID-19,’” he said.
Jensen said the guideline implies that it “would be appropriate to diagnosis on the death certificate COVID-19” if a deceased patient had contact with someone who had the virus but never actually tested positive themselves.
“Now we’ve not done that. If someone has pneumonia and it’s in the middle of the flu epidemic, and I don’t have a test on influenza, I don’t diagnose influenza on the death certificate,” said Jensen.
He called the guidance “concerning” and said doctors never place “probabilities” or “presumptions” on death certificates, but “just the facts.”
“Fear is a great way to control people and I worry about that. We’re so darn interested in jazzing up the fear factor that sometimes people’s ability to think for themselves is paralyzed if their frightened enough. That’s not where I want people to be,” he continued.
The document itself was put out by the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System as a “guidance for certifying deaths due to COVID-19.”
“In cases where a definite diagnosis of COVID–19 cannot be made, but it is suspected or likely (e.g., the circumstances are compelling within a reasonable degree of certainty), it is acceptable to report COVID–19 on a death certificate as ‘probable’ or ‘presumed.’ In these instances, certifiers should use their best clinical judgment in determining if a COVID–19 infection was likely,” the guidance states. “However, please note that testing for COVID–19 should be conducted whenever possible.”
The Minnesota Department of Health’s Office of Vital Records, which maintains birth and death records for the state of Minnesota, now links to the CDC guidance on a webpage for “medical certifiers.”
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to anthony.gockowski@gmail.com.