ICAN has repeatedly demanded that our “health” agencies appropriately attribute deaths from COVID versus deaths with COVID. To that end, ICAN, through its attorneys, recently asked the CDC for all data reflecting the number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 and the number admitted to a hospital for reasons other than COVID-19 (but who tested positive after being admitted).
The goal of this request was to uncover the number of “incidental” hospitalizations, meaning individuals who were admitted to the hospital for some reason other than COVID who happened to test positive for COVID at admission, and as a result are incorrectly labeled a “COVID hospitalization.”
This has been an ongoing problem as Dr. Fauci himself finally acknowledged toward the end of the pandemic, noting that “[s]ince all hospital admissions are tested for COVID-19, many [people] are hospitalized with COVID, as opposed to because of COVID,” where “[t]he real reason for hospitalization might be a broken leg, or appendicitis, or something like that.”
The issue with this method of counting cases, which has been in place since the beginning of the pandemic is that it falsely increases the number COVID-19 hospitalizations, giving the impression that the hospitalization rate due to COVID is much higher than it actually is.
The CDC’s response to our request was incredible. It admitted in no uncertain terms that it has no way of telling the difference between the two, stating, “The way that our data guidance defines COVID admission does not enable us to make a distinction between hospital admissions due to COVID-19 vs. hospital admissions for reasons other than COVID-19.”
This response is significant because it shows, once again, that the CDC is making no effort to provide accurate and important data to the public despite knowing that its inaccurate data continues to be used to impose restrictions, including mask requirements on children. ICAN will persist in holding the CDC accountable.
For more of ICAN’s work demanding accurate data from federal health agencies, see these links:
