My city's official COVID death count was off by 300 because of how they coded nursing homes

Last month I dug into the local health department data for my city, Columbus Ohio, because a news article said we had 500 COVID deaths in 2023. I cross referenced it with state death certificates and found they only counted people who died in a hospital, not in nursing homes or at home. Once I added those in, the real number was closer to 800. Has anyone else found big gaps in how their local officials report death stats?

2 comments

2 Comments

elliot_roberts3d ago

That "only counted people who died in a hospital" thing hits close to home. My cousin lives in Cleveland and he told me their local numbers were way off too because they weren't counting deaths that happened in hospice or at private residences. Makes you wonder how much stuff gets missed when they just go by hospital records.

williamhenderson3d ago

Right, because who needs accurate data when you can just pretend everyone who didn't die in a hospital just vanished into thin air. Guess the viruses finally learned how to teleport people away.