Sarasota County: “With COVID Death” vs. “From COVID Death” are two different numbers according to the Medical Examiner

Do you know what “COVID Deaths” – the number displayed in the COVID Dashboards your see and what is reported by the media – actually means?

 

(I bet you don’t, as I apparently did not until this week’s County Commission Meeting, when I had a chance to engage the Medical Examiner on information I did not know existed until he presented it to us).

 

Bare with me on this explanation as it’s tough to jam the full context into a post, but I will try. Here goes….

 

Below are the real FACTS (as of Weds), which were provided by the Medical Examiner.

 

Keep in mind: The Medical Examiner is the ONE person in Sarasota County tasked with investigating deaths and providing the “CAUSE of death”. He normally doesn’t look at all deaths, but looks at suspicious deaths, etc. == HOWEVER == The Governor has instructed him to look at EVERY “COVID Death” in our area (suspicious or not), so he is reviewing every COVID Positive person who passes away.

 

Here are the REAL STATS for Sarasota County:

➡️ COVID Deaths = 97
➡️ 97 People died WITH COVID
➡️. 72 People died FROM COVID

 

Wait… Why the 25 death (26%) difference between 97 vs. 72?

 

Turns out: COVID Deaths (97) = People who died WITH COVID.

 

This means that if someone passes away and also happen to be COVID positive, they are all put in the “COVID Deaths” column which is then published on the State Dashboard and reported on my the media.

 

After that, their body is sent to the Medical Examiner. He investigates their health background, initial cause of death, and the body to narrow down what the TRUE cause of death is. This is the 72 number. Through his investigation, he moved 25 people from “COVID Deaths” (97) to “Died FROM COVID” (72). That is a 26% difference.

 

So…In short… While we look at the COVID Positive Case # (valuable stat), if you are looking for the Deaths FROM COVID, we should be looking at the Medical Exaiminer’s number (72) – which is not the figure published on the Dashboard & Reported by the media (97).

 

I have posted the FULL EXCHANGE BELOW for those who do not believe the information I shared above. You can watch and make your own decision.

 

Fine print for those looking to attack vs. analyze:
1) Every death is someone’s grandmother, father, sister, child, etc. They ALL matter. I also believe COVID is very serious and we need to continue to monitor and prevent the spread. However, those beliefs should not allow me (or anyone else) to ignore the real facts out there. The public deserves access to the facts and the policy makers depend on the facts to make decisions.
2) Keep social distancing, wash your hands, stay home when sick, wear a mask if you can’t social distance, but also – Keep asking questions and digging into the data if you want to make informed decisions.

 

Lastly – I have reached out to media outlets in our area so that they can (1) Report this information to the public and (2) Be more clear in their reporting going froward. So far, they haven’t reported on this exchange or changed their reporting since, so PLEASE SHARE THIS POST if you have made it this far down!