Elon Musk Expresses Interest in Cook County Covid Deaths Thread
A longstanding issue caught the billionaire's attention
I was surprised this morning by a reply to my Cook County covid-related deaths thread from Twitter owner Elon Musk.
Here’s the whole thread, for those not on Twitter. (Apologies for typos.)
Wood House Substack readers will recognize some of the content from past posts.
For nearly 3 years - not just "since Omicron" - Covid-19 deaths have been severely overcounted.
I can show this in many ways, but in this thread, I'll highlight some things from Cook County (Chicago) & make connections to other people's previous & recent work.
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Cook Co covid-19 deaths began in March 2020, w/the Med Examiner temporarily assuming jurisdiction over natural deaths occurring in healthcare facilities
This jurisdiction ceased on Apr 1, 2022 for reasons unknown, at which point C19 deaths plummeted maps.cookcountyil.gov/medexamcovid19/
IMO, the jurisdiction ended because swabbing every body with a PCR test was no longer as beneficial to The Narrative as it once was.
Among other things, Covid-attributed deaths were becoming increasingly detrimental to the vax campaign & to mid-term elections.
Lest anyone doubt the CCME was directed to search high & low for any death that could be blamed on the *novel* virus, this WBEZ report from May 2020 makes it abundantly clear
If you're paywalled, see this old thread
Lots of eyebrow-raising content, including fall all death & barroom brawl injuries death being attributed in part to covid-19 🙄
Wood House 🔥 @EWoodhouse7
Prior to the pandemic response, the Cook Co ME only handled deaths in healthcare facilities when a non-natural cause was involved or suspected, or causes were natural but needed to be investigated for another reason (in accordance w/Illinois law).
Mortality "waves" & covid-related deaths in Cook County coincided w/the Gov's "stay home” orders (March 2020 and Oct/Nov 2020) & with respiratory virus seasonality.
FYI, the % of all wkly deaths listing C19 as contributing cause peaked at 39.38% in May 2020, dropped to 29.94% in Dec 2021, and rose to 37.29% during the so-called Omicron surge.
Last time I checked, 84% percent of Cook Co’s pop. had received at least 1 dose of the covid shot & 75% had completed a primary series
Among those fully vaxed & age-eligible, 57% had received one booster & 53% of boosted residents age 50+ were 2-boosted. woodhouse.substack.com/p/did-the-cook…
Regarding the most obviously NOT COVID covid deaths, as of Sept 2022, there were 219 in the CCME register classified as “accident” or suicide
Overdoses, poisonings, falls, head injuries, & exposure to cold temperatures... 🙄woodhouse.substack.com/p/drug-overdos…
Cook Co isn't alone in applying bad coding guidance.
@justin_hart highlighted other examples from a CDC public access file recently retrieved by @snorman1776
Others who have documented or spoken to problem - which isn't limited to non-natural deaths - include @AlexBerenson @jhaskinscabrera.
alexberenson.substack.com/p/a-veteran-me…
The truth is, until the covid pandemic-response, most Americans (self included) had no idea how subjective, political, and incentivized cause of death determinations can be.
Former death cert clerk Joy Clerk explains this well:
Many of us recall IDPH Director Ngozi Ezike explaining in Apr 2020 how liberally covid deaths were being defined.
Having an MD sibling who worked in Ebola outbreaks in Africa, I know that there are good reasons for this kind of definition w/SOME kinds of disease situations.
Ezike tried to walk it back a few weeks later by saying the “most obvious” (i.e., non-natural cause) deaths would be removed from the count, but there's no evidence that happened, except with homicide deaths
It's curious to me that waves of natural deaths in Cook Co correspond w/long-observed winter morality waves, as well as with actions taken to "slow the spread" or combat the virus.
(FYI, the dashed line below is simply a visual reference point, not anything statistical.)
CovidPanic-pusher @DrLeanaWen was allowed (chosen?) to broach this subject in a recent WaPo article late last week
Do she & @ShiraDoronMD, et al have the courage to see see what data and documents have long shown?Not yet, it seems.
They might start by reading @brocklyboy's excellent overview of the Covid case definition & problems associated therewith.
Brock Burt @brocklyboy
And this is only one county (albeit a large one) in one state in one country.
The general issue noted in the last tweet, "What actually caused this person to die?," or "What was the underlying cause of death?" is compelling. Most of us probably have known people who died, and it was hard to say what caused the death.