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Applied Epistemologist's avatar

Confidential death certificates make it much easier to keep dead people on voter rolls. This can come in handy for governments at all levels.

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Jessica Hockett's avatar

Precisely

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Xabier's avatar

There are some governments only the dead would be caught voting for......

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Jennifer Smith, PhD's avatar

I would assert that anything that falls under HIPPAA can be kept private and all other information can be available to the public. The government has proven that they are very adept at redaction. Most people publish announcements of a loved ones death in local papers or on websites. Not to mention all the information now published through census and ancestry websites.

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Jessica Hockett's avatar

HIPAA is about the transmission of private medical information

TMK, HIPAA laws are not cited in states' vital records laws; moreover, some states do allow citizens to obtain death certificates or death certificate data (line by line) via FOIA.

So if federal HIPAA laws were binding and prohibitive, that wouldn't be possible

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Jessica Hockett's avatar

But we are on the same page insofar as a minimum for automatic disclosure is information related to the fact of a person's death: name, age, date/time, location, place.

We have no such thing for New York.

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Jim Torma's avatar

Excellent granular observation!! I love it!!

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Jessica Hockett's avatar

😉

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TFish's avatar

There are obviously contradictions in this desire to ‘maintain confidentiality’. Death records are essential for all sorts of issues: property ownership, inheritance, insurance, taxes, social security, voting records, etc. The list is as significant as would apply to birth and marriage records. The data exists, they just want it kept hidden. This is not a privacy issue, that’s a fig leaf.

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Jessica Hockett's avatar

Exactly

Divorce is a good analogy.

Should records showing the basic facts of a divorce (certificates of divorce) be hidden from public view?

No.

Can divorce proceedings and filings and detailed be subject to redactions/withholding?

Yes

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TFish's avatar

These are all public records issues. As a counterpoint, one can consider how much personal information is constantly being farmed and sold on the internet. Government does almost nothing to protect personal privacy. Not saying that is ok, but basic things like birth, marriage, divorce, and death are connected to so many aspects of the bureaucracy, it’s just untenable to claim this as a privacy issue.

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Gunther Heinz's avatar

Interesting. In Brazil there are two central data bases. One is the CIVIL REGISTRY data base, run by the judicial branch, and the other is the Ministry of Health data base. The public version of the Ministry of Health data base is record level and highly detailed going back to 1979, but six months late. The CIVIL REGISTRY data base is updated two or three times a week, but has only aggregated totals going back to 2017 and does not furnish record level data to the public. They are essentially DUPLICATE data bases, but you´re only officially dead on the CIVIL REGISTRY data base, since there are legal ramifications for being dead; taxes, criminal charges, probate, etc..

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Jessica Hockett's avatar

Very interesting, thx

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Gunther Heinz's avatar

Your welcome. It's funny that in societies like Brazil, high bureaucratic and corrupt, the distinction between LEGAL data and data which is merely INFORMATIONAL is very much an obsession. No matter how dead you are in real life, your not dead until the CARTORIO hands you a piece of paper with your dead name on it.

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Gaye's avatar

If you have any desire to see how that worked in Florida, Len and Jessica Cabrera did some death certificate investigation and may have thoughts. I think she is editor of the Alachua Chronicle. (Her Twitter page was great when I could see it.). Len looked into death certificates in October 2020 and found they were counting deaths that were not caused by covid. Don’t know how he got them but…

https://alachuachronicle.com/about-us/

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Jessica Hockett's avatar

Yes, I know Jen and remember the article in real time because I was in a DM group with her

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Gaye's avatar

I ran across a screenshot I made to preserve the death record scam. Too many scams to preserve. 🤦‍♀️

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Jessica Hockett's avatar

If only we had a nickel for every screenshot of the scam...we'd be very rich :)

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Arne's avatar

There's a database of covid deaths in Florida in 2020 that the Florida Medical Examiners Commission maintains. It was an eye-opener when I went through it that summer. Who was dying, and how old they were. It's still online, at https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2020/07/11/update-searchable-florida-medical-examiners-database/5415936002/

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Gaye's avatar

Thanks for the link!

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Jessica Hockett's avatar

Cook County, IL and Milwaukee have the same thing.

There was no new cause of death, so covid-blamed death aren't my biggest concern.

It's deaths.

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Madam Stakeholder's avatar

You're likely already familiar (if not involved?) with this (re covid statistics in Illinois in the early scamdemic); but if not, you may find this tangentially worthwhile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A57Wof9HgKY

"...the simulation model is calibrated to replicate this trend..."

BY: Project Parents' Rights

This^ also relates (tangentially) to PANDA's work on the Johns Hopkins dashboard (if you want to pass it on).

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Also (forgive me! I know you've plenty on your plate), look at page 33 of this document (it's quick info):

https://www.cms.gov/files/document/summary-covid-19-emergency-declaration-waivers.pdf

Pertains to EMS protocols/waivers and "ambulance treat in place." It's "New 5/5/2021" from the FedGovt, but it's not necessarily not relevant (for ex, a lot of changes have been ushered in since the overwhelming success of "covid"). And it reminds me that billing is another avenue of truth mining (you know this, and I'm in over my head much beyond this).

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And that^ reminds me that you really might give some consideration to engaging with "Kevin Roche"/"Healthy Skeptic." He's a sometimes-crude/obnoxious man and I don't like him (from afar, though well familiar with); but, he does know things. You could approach him in a flattering/respectful (clean slate) way, and he might be open to directing you (assisting you?) to accessing data (that you may not be knowledgeable about). He's too much of an insider, but he's also in the end stage of his career (which may free him somewhat to do more than protect his rice bowl). He has his own website/blog and a Xwitter account.

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Next (last!): This tweet (it's 2 tweets) may be of interest to you:

https://x.com/dobssi/status/1787370161223159828

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Thank You for your relentlessness, dear Jessica.

Bye! (sorry!)

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Gaye's avatar

Apparently that’s too much to ask. Control freaks.

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