"Once You’re COVID, You’re Dying of COVID, No Matter What."
"Once You’re COVID, You’re Dying of COVID, No Matter What."
Transcript of conversation between a state health department worker and a care home staffer regarding COVID death counting in J.B. Pritzker's Illinois
This is a transcript of a recorded conversation.
Fall 2020
LTCF Admin: How long are they looking at that death certificate to label them COVID, do you know?
IDPH Person: Oh! Like right now, like if they got COVID-tested today, and they fell and broke their neck and died, they’re gonna say they died from COVID.
LTCF Admin: Right, but -- true, I know that. But how long, too, will they count that as a COVID death, even if they’ve been recovered?
IDPH Person: Oh, I think once you’re COVID, down there, you’re dying of COVID, no matter what. That’s what we’re seeing. And I’m just like, I don’t think that statistics are accurately -- personally -- are showing who actually died from COVID. I have a positive test, and I get in a car wreck, I’m dying of COVID. I’m not dying of a car accident. And we’re seeing that. I know that’s happening. I know that from talking to, just from being in different places in the testing line and watching what they’re doing. I’m like, ‘This is crazy. These are skewed numbers.’
LTCF Admin: It gives you no hope of getting ahead of this then. It really - you know what I mean? How do we get this death count down, or true, if everybody can stub their toe and die of this?
IDPH Person: That’s just something - I’ve gone into facilities where people have never tested and they’ve got COVID on their death certificate. So I don’t know if local agencies are being told to do that because they get more money for their county. I mean, I’m asking questions too. I’m like, ‘This is weird. How can they -- I mean, I know two people that their grandparents died and they never tested for COVID, and they have COVID-19 on their death certificate - because they were an older person from a nursing home, so…
LTCF Admin: Well, for sure we’re not getting any compensation for it.
IDPH Person: No, I don’t mean you. I’m talking about local counties and stuff like that. Or the state of Illinois might get more money if they have 700,000 positive versus -- I don’t know who has, I’m just throwing numbers out there. But that’s how the money is spread around. So maybe that’s why Pritzker is saying, ‘Test, test, test, test, test!” because he does testing - and this is just totally off the subject - is testing really what’s gonna fix it?
LTCF Admin: Not if we have the cycles set as high as they are. Because most of ours have hardly any symptoms.