"The CDC Does Not Maintain Complete Death Certificate Collections"

A good reminder about where U.S. deaths are documented and the records kept - plus some basic facts about how death recording works in America.

I learned something obvious today that I should have realized & articulated much sooner:

States don’t submit death certificates to the CDC or other federal entity — they submit death certificate data.

Responding to an inquiry I submitted about WONDER, the federal death database, a CDC staffer wrote,

"The CDC does not maintain complete death certificate col…