Those "Covid" Deaths Tabulated by the County Aren't Necessarily From Covid, Health Officials Admit

January 28, 2022 - Of the Covid deaths tabulated by the LA County Department of Public Health over the last two weeks, 80% are noted as involving underlying conditions. Now health officials have admitted that they do not actually know if these individuals died from the fact they had Covid or from the underlying condition. As long as the death was not from a traumatic accident, the "Covid" label is applied based solely on whether or not the death occurred less than 30 days from a positive Covid test.

"It is often difficult to know the role covid played when someone dies of a potential secondary complication. For people who die of a heart attack after having covid for example – it is possible that covid was a contributing cause for some % of those cases," a spokesman for the Health Department wrote. "As a result, we use a broad definition of attributing any non-accidental/traumatic death to covid if that death occurs <30 days of a positive covid test (used to <60 days until recently)."

The spokesman acknowledged that it is likely "some of those deaths" were not the result of Covid-19. However, the Health Department believes that this over-reporting is made up for by the under-reporting of deaths of individuals who did not test for Covid or who did not report such results to the Health Department.

It seems unlikely someone would actually die from Covid-19 without a diagostic test being performed at some point.

"This definition provides a more comprehensive estimate of mortality associated with covid, and applying a single objective criteria allows us to consistently track trends over time," the spokesman wrote. However, the metric was changed - at some undefined point - from less than 60 days to less than 30 days. This makes tracking trends impossible.

With 80% of deaths involving underlying causes, it is possible the number of deaths actually caused by the Covid disease is as little as 20% of the numbers being publicized by the LA County Department of Public Health.