Last 24 hours in Marin County: 23 newly diagnosed cases; no new hospitalizations, no deaths.
A little headline going around says that 94% of those with deaths attributed to COVID had underlying conditions. I find it hard to respond to this without emotional involvement, but will try. And then I include a related note from a medic, and a clarifying note from a neighbor.
There are two major problems with the idea that only 6% of COVID deaths lacked other medical conditions.
The first problem is this: I don't understand why it isn't zero. All human beings have other health conditions; perhaps it's that 6% of us haven't had them diagnosed yet.
The second problem is the implication that somehow COVID isn't that lethal. (In a few days I hope to post a comparison of COVID with seasonal flu. Summary: COVID is far worse.) The fact is that approximately 100% of those who died from COVID died prematurely. About 100% of them would still be living still and, if not fully well, would still be about as vibrant and alive as they were a month before COVID took them.
From a friend, citing a close friend, a medic, who notes ... "I've been getting some questions about the whole 94% of people who died from Covid had other contributing factors thing. That's because when we fill out a death certificate, we're supposed to list all contributing factors. Say you got covid, then developed pneumonia from it and got respiratory failure leading to you dying in the ICU (even though you were fine before). Then I list covid, pneumonia, respiratory failure. If your kidneys failed because of covid clots, I list 'kidney failure' as a contributing cause of your death. If you threw clots to your lungs and infarcted them, I put 'pulmonary embolism'. If being intubated with covid affected your heart you might get 'myocardial infarction' or 'heart failure'. If you had a chronic condition, then you will also get 'diabetes' or 'hypertension' or even 'obesity' listed. It's like if someone comes in and dies from a heart attack, their cause of death is listed as 'myocardial infarction', with the contributing factors of 'coronary artery disease' maybe, and if they've ever had a high cholesterol reading 'hyperlipidemia' or if they had higher BP before 'hypertension'.
If you have diabetes, and that leads to renal failure, and heart disease and a stroke, the diabetes still caused it, but you're not going to just have 'diabetes' listed as your cause of death either.
What it doesn't mean is that we are overcounting covid deaths. Thanks.”
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Carolyn Lecoque added this helpful clarification:
To respond to your, "problem with the idea that only 6% of COVID deaths lacked other medical conditions...I don't understand why it isn't zero. All human beings have other health conditions; perhaps it's that 6% of us haven't had them diagnosed yet.
Within the healthcare system, an "underlying health condition" refers to a medical problem that is chronic or significant and usually requires long-term treatment- such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, cancer, or kidney disease. Yes, none of us are perfectly healthy so we may have some other health condition but it is not severe enough to be labeled as an "underlying health condition." Having a medical history does not mean you have an "underlying health condition."
I fully agree that COVID-19 is lethal as over 180,000 people in the US have already died from this disease. When the immune system is already tackling an underlying health condition, the body's ability to respond to a novel virus is compromised. There are hundreds of health conditions which may affect immune function but, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and high blood pressure have seen the highest number of fatalities from COVID-19. The reasons for this lie with the aggressiveness of the conditions themselves and how they are already affecting the body's ability to fight off illnesses.
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Thanks, Jay McGill for discussing, I lifted the first quoted text from a Facebook post from Shelly Glennon and Carolyn Lecoque for the added commentary.