Missouri coroner admits omitting COVID-19 from death certificates

Macon County, Missouri Coroner Brian Hayes admitted in a recent interview that he has omitted coronavirus (COVID-19) from death certificates.

“A lot of families were upset,” said Hayes, who is also a partner and funeral director for the Greening-Eagan-Hayes Funeral Homes, a group of funeral home offices in the region. “They didn’t want COVID on the death certificates. I won’t lie for them, it’s got be true, but I do what pleases the family.”

It was an ethically questionable approach frowned on by much of the U.S. medical community as it tries to ascertain the deadly extent of the pandemic in rural sections of the country and halt its spread. (Related: Washington State has inflated its COVID-19 death toll, analysis of death certificates concludes.)

Allowing families to omit COVID-19 on death certificates of their loved ones has changed Macon County’s official coronavirus death toll from upwards of 30 down to 19, according to state and local estimates. The lower death toll is also reflected in statewide figures maintained by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).

While he doesn’t agree with the coroner’s decision to exclude COVID-19 from some death certificates, Macon County Health Department Administrator Mike Chambers said he can “see both sides.”

“There are viruses out there that are so similar to COVID, like the flu, and unless you do a test to confirm, you just don’t know,” Chambers said. “If you can link it to a known case, maybe, but we’ve had people that were exposed but their tests turned up negative.”

Fauci: No doubt U.S. has been undercounting COVID-19 deaths

In May, a study from the University of Washington found that there was a significant undercount of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. The report estimated that the number of coronavirus fatalities in the country was about 57 percent higher than official figures.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said during a May appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the data from the study may have been a bit higher than what he expected but he had “no doubt” the country has been undercounting COVID-19 deaths.

“What that tells us is something that we’ve known,” he said. “You know, we’re living through a historic pandemic, the likes of which we haven’t seen in over a hundred years.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a case of COVID-19 started the chain of events that ultimately led to someone’s death in roughly 92 percent of cases where coronavirus is listed somewhere on a final death certificate. If someone has a terminal illness like cancer, COVID-19 is only included as a cause of death if the person would have lived longer without contracting the virus.

No positive PCR test not counted as COVID death in Missouri

Missouri is one of a handful of states that doesn’t count probable COVID deaths – those missing a positive PCR test – on its online dashboard or in official state tallies. (Related: False data: Minnesota legislators demand audit for inflated coronavirus deaths.)

A state health official said it was in line with the decision made by the state health department’s prior leadership – alluding to former DHSS Director Dr. Randall Williams who resigned in April.

“There were some long conversations as case definitions came down … and, at the time under prior leadership, the decision was made not to include probable cases,” said Ken Palermo, the state registrar of vital statistics. “Not to indict prior leadership, but that’s how that decision came to be.”

The pandemic is still a contentious subject in Macon County. Only 38 percent of the county’s 18 and older residents are fully vaccinated, below Missouri’s statewide average of 51.3 percent.

Many have resisted calls to wear masks and get vaccinated. Some have refused to acknowledge that several of those who died in the county over the past 18 months had contracted the virus.

“They think it’s so taboo,” said Cheryl Blaise, 68, who retired from Missouri’s health department and now is a part-time employee for Macon County’s health department. “It’s kind of like, ‘Oh my God, you’ve got HIV and you died from it, we’re not putting that on the death certificate.'”

More COVID patients mean more money for hospitals

Pettis County Coroner Robert “Skip” Smith said he had been asked to add or remove COVID-19 as a cause of death by families but refused.

“Now everybody wants it on the death certificate because they get money from FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency], where before, nobody wanted COVID on it,” said Smith. “In my personal opinion, a coroner shouldn’t be asking a family what they want on it. It’s not up to them. That’s his job…To me, that’s unethical.”

FEMA has a government assistance program that can reimburse up to $9,000 per funeral for those who died of the virus.

At the height of the COVID-19 crisis in April last year, Congress created a $100 billion fund under the CARES Act to assist hospitals and to provide Medicare reimbursements for COVID-related treatment. The amounts provided were 20 percent more than typical reimbursements.

These government assistance programs made it hard to believe Fauci’s claim that the country has been undercounting COVID-19 deaths. Last year, legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus cast doubt on the COVID-19 death toll. “I don’t think the deaths are a correct number,” he said. “I hate to say that.”

Nicklaus told a story about two people he knew whose parents died from something other than COVID-19. According to Nicklaus, they were asked if the cause of death could be changed to COVID-19 and declined. “The hospital gets more money with COVID death than they do another death,” Nicklaus said. “I’m sure there’s been a lot of that.”

Sources include:

KansasCity.com

NBCNews.com

Sports.Yahoo.com