DEFINITION: A CASE OF COVID
The CDC says that any one of four criteria1 can be used to determine “a case of covid”:
1) Clinical Criteria;
2) Laboratory Criteria;
3) Epidemiologic Linkage;
and — in the absence of any of the foregoing criteria —
4) Covid Listed as ‘Cause of Death on Death Certificate’.
Let’s look at each of these four criteria in detail.
- Clinical Criteria
In the absence of a more likely diagnosis:
Acute onset or worsening of at least two of the following symptoms or signs:
*fever (measured or subjective),
*chills,
*rigors,
*myalgia,
*headache,
*sore throat,
*nausea or vomiting,
*diarrhea,
*fatigue,
*congestion or runny nose
OR
Acute onset or worsening of any one of the following symptoms or signs:
*cough;
*shortness of breath;
*difficulty breathing;
*olfactory disorder;
*taste disorder;
*confusion or change in mental status;
*persistent pain or pressure in the chest;
*pale, gray, or blue-colored skin, lips, or nail beds, depending on skin tone;
*inability to wake or stay awake;
OR
Severe respiratory illness with at least one of the following:
*Clinical or radiographic evidence of pneumonia;
*Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). - Laboratory Evidence
*Detection of SARS-CoV-2 ribonucleic acid (RNA) in a post-mortem respiratory swab or clinical specimen using a diagnostic molecular amplification test performed by a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-certified provider;
OR
*Detection of SARS-CoV-2 by genomic sequencing;
*Detection of SARS-CoV-2 specific antigen in a post-mortem obtained respiratory swab or clinical specimen using a diagnostic test performed by a CLIA-certified provider;
*Detection of antibody in serum, plasma, or whole blood specific to natural infection with SARS-CoV-2 (antibody to nucleocapsid protein);
OR
*Detection of SARS-CoV-2 specific antigen by immunocytochemistry in an autopsy specimen;
OR
*Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA or specific antigen using a test performed without CLIA oversight. - Epidemiologic Linkage
One or more of the following exposures in the prior 14 days:
*Contact within 6 feet for at least 15 minutes (cumulative over a 24-hour period) with a confirmed or probable case of COVID-19 disease;
OR
*Member of an exposed risk cohort as defined by public health authorities during an outbreak or during high community transmission. - Death Certificate listing COVID-19 disease or SARS-CoV-2 or an equivalent term as an underlying cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death.
Criteria number 1 (Clinical Criteria) states that having a case of pneumonia is sufficient for the patient to be deemed a “covid case.” In 2018, 1.5 million people were diagnosed with pneumonia in an emergency department.2 If those 1.5 million people suffering from pneumonia had entered an ER in 2020, they would automatically be documented as covid cases because “clinical or radiographic evidence of pneumonia” is enough to qualify the patient as “a case of covid.”
Stomach flu3 and food poisoning4 are two common ailments from which no one escapes suffering at one time or another. The symptoms of both stomach flu and food poisoning include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps. Those symptoms likewise fit the clinical criteria for “a case of covid.”
Seasonal flu has virtually disappeared. Between October 2019 and February 2020 (2019-2020 flu season), 8,633 people were hospitalized with the flu. CDC put the number of flu deaths at 22,000. Between October 2020 and February 2021 (2020-2021 flu season), only 155 people in the United States were hospitalized with the flu; 700 deaths were attributed to the flu.5 6 (Similarly, Australia has seen a 95% reduction in flu cases. 7) It’s 2021, and influenza has been re-branded “covid.”
Criteria number 2 (Laboratory Evidence) is more complicated and merits extensive discussion. We will look at PCR covid testing in a later post.
Criteria number 3 (Epidemiologic Linkage) deals with contact tracing. Anybody who, for 15 minutes (or even less), has been within 6 feet of someone deemed to have a “case of covid” under Criteria 1, Criteria 2, or Criteria 4 is likewise considered to be another “case of covid.” In practical terms, that means that everybody in the waiting room at ADOT has “a case of covid.” The person with the “case of covid” alledgedly infecting everybody else does not have to show any symptoms. Just having been in the vicinity of someone who likewise does not have to show clinical symptoms but who himself has been deemed to be “a case of covid” is sufficient to be counted as another “case of covid.”
Criteria number 4 (Death Certificate) boils down to: if the attending doctor or Medical Examiner writes “covid” in the “Cause of Death” box on the death certificate, there’s your diagnosis.
Remember the case of the young motorcyclist in Florida who crashed and died? His death certificate stated his cause of death as “covid.”8
In Oregon, a man who died from falling off a ladder was officially counted as a “covid death.”9
In Colorado, a man who died of acute alcohol poisoning 10 and various other gunshot fatalities were counted as “covid” deaths: that’s what their death certificates listed.11
That’s authorized under criteria number 4: even though they crashed a motorcycle or slammed a quart of Everclear 190-proof or fell off a ladder or got shot, these people who died with covid genetic debris in their system (as determined by lab-testing) were tabulated as covid deaths. Follow the so-called science: poisoning or blunt force trauma might have been the immediate cause, but officially the underlying cause was covid … like the seven year old boy who drowned in the bathtub: he drowned because he had covid.12
It is safe to say that, if they were not already in very poor health and suffering from three or more chronic co-morbidities, or victim of sudden-impact blunt force trauma or of drowning, these unfortunates who died “from covid” would have survived their bout with covid. Nevertheless, survivors who recognize this gross logical discrepancy and who say things like “my grandfather died from Stage 4 cancer, not covid” or “my brother-in-law died from crashing his motorcycle, not covid”) are said to be operating under cognitive dissonance and are branded covid-death-deniers.
Sociologist and grief specialist Holly Prigerson explains it to NPR:
If people believe the pandemic is a hoax, or that the dangers of the virus are overblown, then anything, including the death of a loved one from this disease … they compartmentalize it. They’re not going to process it. It gives them too much of a headache to try to reconcile.
Sociologist Holly Prigerson says that trying to argue covid-death-deniers out of their silly belief that someone died not from covid but because he fell off a ladder and broke his neck leads to what psychologists call the backfire effect. When challenged, people stubbornly double down on their beliefs and refuse to listen to the voice of authority (such as that of sociologist Holly Prigerson).13
Those travesties of logic occurred in 2020, and continue — not just in America but around the world. In November 2021, a healthy Australian man was gunned down in his driveway. He died within a minutes. His lifeless body was transported to the morgue where it was swabbed and, subsequently, the gunshot victim was officially declared “dead due to covid.”14
Is this a joke?
***
Sources
1CDC. “Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) 2021 CSTE position statement, clinical description, case classification, case definition, data modernization.” https://ndc.services.cdc.gov/case-definitions/coronavirus-disease-2019-2021/
2CDC. “Pneumonia.” https://www.cdc.gov/dotw/pneumonia/index.html
3Mayo Clinic. “Viral gastroenteritis (stomach flu)”. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/viral-gastroenteritis/symptoms-causes/syc-20378847
4Mayo Clinic. “Food poisoning.” https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/food-poisoning/symptoms-causes/syc-20356230
5Ries, Julia. “Why the Flu Season Basically Disappeared This Year.” Health Line. 2021 Feb 11.
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/why-the-flu-season-basically-disappeared-this-year
6Peek, Katie. “Flu Has Disappeared for More Than a Year.” Scientific American. 2021 Apr 29. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/flu-has-disappeared-worldwide-during-the-covid-pandemic1/
7Derwin, Jack. “Australians are having fewer funerals through the pandemic, as restrictions lead to fewer seasonal deaths.” Business Insider Australia. 2020 Aug 25. https://www.businessinsider.com.au/australian-funerals-pandemic-restrictions-costs-2020-8
8Powers, Frieda. “Fla health official shocks reporter when he says man in 20s listed as Covid death died in motorcycle accident.” BizPacReview. 2020 Jul 17. https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/07/17/fla-health-official-shocks-reporter-when-he-says-man-in-20s-listed-as-covid-death-died-in-motorcycle-accident-948122/
9Straka, Ben. “COVID-19 Deaths Reported in Oregon Include Those Who Didn’t Die From the Virus.” Freedom Foundation. 2020 Jul 24. https://www.freedomfoundation.com/covid-19/covid-19-deaths-reported-in-oregon-include-those-who-didnt-die-from-the-virus/
10Maass, Brian. “COVID-19 Death Dispute: Colorado Coroner Says State Mischaracterized Death.” CBS Denver. 2020 May 14. https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/05/14/coronavirus-montezuma-county-coroner-alcohol-poisoning-covid-death/
11Pavlich, Katie. “In Colorado, They’re Counting Gun Shot Fatalities as COVID Deaths.” Townhall. 2020 Dec 17. https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2020/12/17/in-colorado-theyre-counting-gun-shot-fatalities-as-covid-deaths-n2581730
12Vera, Amir Vera and Jamiel Lynch. “The 7-year-old Georgia boy with Covid-19 who died drowned in a bathtub after a seizure, coroner says.” CNN. 2020 Aug 10. https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/10/us/georgia-boy-covid-19-death-drowned/index.html
13Tompkins, Al. “Why is Congress exempt from the Biden COVID vaccine mandate?” Poynter. 2021 Sep 13. https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2021/why-is-congress-exempt-from-the-biden-covid-vaccine-mandate/
14Watson, Paul Joseph. “Man Shot to Death Counted as COVID-19 Fatality.” Banned.Video Bitchute Channel. 2021 Nov 12. https://www.bitchute.com/video/LBk3jgHU8YHN/