HHS Will Stop Counting COVID Deaths on Feb. 2, According to New Guidance for Hospitals

At this point, it’s clear there’s a difference between hospitalization with COVID-19 and for COVID-19. Now take the next logical step; there is also a difference between dying with COVID and dying from COVID. How many people listed as dying of COVID were receiving treatment for another illness and only tested positive? Apparently, that is a conversation the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) does not want to have.

In an astonishing move, HHS notified hospitals they are no longer required to report COVID deaths beginning Feb. 2, 2022. Currently, the only required reporting of COVID deaths is the count from the previous day. That information is now on the list of inactive fields in an update sent to hospitals and acute care facilities on Jan. 6. On page 27 of the update, under “Data Elements Made Inactive for the Federal Data Collection,” item 16, “Previous Days Covid Deaths,” is listed.

In Spring 2021, the CDC started carefully separating deaths from COVID from those where the deceased tested positive but died of something else. The agency was invested in promoting vaccines, and the number of breakthrough infections and deaths was low. So, the CDC investigated each death carefully and applied a different standard than it did to the rest of the reporting. Since the beginning of the pandemic, if there was a positive COVID test and the patient died, it was listed as a COVID death. With vaccine breakthrough deaths, the CDC distinguished between deaths with the virus and deaths from the virus. – READ MORE