Peer-Reviewed Study Claims CDC Skewed CCP Virus Fatalities Upward
Epoch Times | 19 March 2021 | Mark Tapscott

A little-noticed peer-reviewed study published last October by a science and public health journal claims the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ignored federal laws and regulations when it changed how the government counts deaths from COVID-19, caused by the CCP virus, also known as the novel coronavirus.

… “Based upon the complete absence of Federal Register records for ‘Proposed Data Collection Submitted for Public Comment,’ …

“We allege that the complete absence of the appropriate Federal Register records is evidence that the CDC knowingly and willingly violated the IQA & PRA. As a direct consequence of implementing the two documents below [the two new guidelines for how to count Covid deaths that the CDD issued] without OMB approval, there was significant inflation of COVID-19 case and fatality data,” the study said.

A spokesman for the CDC did not respond by deadline to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

The 10 authors of the study compared fatality counts compiled using the new system propounded by the CDC in an alert issued on March 24, 2020, early in the initial national lockdown, and the procedures used by the CDC and all state and local public health officials since 2003. The latter procedures are described in two handbooks, one for physicians and a second for medical examiners and cornoners.

“These handbooks have been used successfully for 17 years without need of update. They remain in use today for all causes of death except where involvement of COVID-19 is suspected or confirmed. When involvement of COVID-19 is suspected or confirmed, the March 24th, 2020 COVID19 Alert No. 2 guidelines are used instead,” according to the study.

Based on data for all recorded U.S. deaths through August 23, 2020, the new CDC system counted 161,392 that were attributed to the virus. Using the older system, the death total was only 9,684.

The essential difference between the old and new systems was the latter’s inclusion of multiple co-morbidities along with the virus and listing the virus as the cause of death and the co-morbidities as “contributing conditions.”

The study pointed to a CDC weekly alert on Aug. 23, 2020, that explained “For 6 percent of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.”

The same weekly alert updated as of March 14, 2021, stated, “for 6 percent of these deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned on the death certificate. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 3.8 additional conditions or causes per death.”